TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Thursday, Oct 03, 2024

Leaked documents indicate over 300 members of far-right paramilitary Oath Keepers may be current or former DHS employees, Project on Government Oversight reports

Leaked documents indicate over 300 members of far-right paramilitary Oath Keepers may be current or former DHS employees, Project on Government Oversight reports

Just weeks after Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy for trying to violently overturn the 2020 election, a leak of the paramilitary group's membership list has revealed that potentially hundreds of far-right extremists have infiltrated federal law enforcement, the Project on Government Oversight reported on Monday.
Launched in 2009, the Oath Keepers from the start tried to recruit from the military and law enforcement with an ostensible goal of upholding the US Constitution and having its members refuse unlawful orders, per the Southern Poverty Law Center, which labels it an "extremist" group. In practice, that has meant, as on January 6, rejecting the rule of law — court orders and democratic processes that thwart far-right policy goals — in favor of conspiracy theories and armed resistance.

More than a decade of recruitment has led the group to collect at least 306 members who have described themselves as "current or former employees of the Department of Homeland Security," according to POGO, which reviewed the leaked membership documents from the group in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

DHS agencies include US Customs and Immigration Services, the Transportation Security Administration, and the US Secret Service. Most of the self-described DHS employees asserted that they were retired, but at least one claimed to be an activity-duty Secret Service agent; another said they were a supervisor with Border Patrol, according to the documents reviewed by POGO.

The full membership list, which Insider reported on in September, includes more than 38,000 names.

Rachel Carroll Rivas, deputy director of research, reporting, and analysis at the SPLC Intelligence Project, said the Oath Keepers succeeded at presenting themselves, publicly, as a "constitutionalist" group but that it was always extremist and conspiracy-minded, seeking out law enforcement and military recruits for the perceived credibility it would lend an otherwise fringe organization. But it also targeted veterans and police because their skillset could prove useful in an armed struggle.

"That's a real manipulation tactic, to target people for a particular skill and then bring them into a violent and ideological movement," Carrol Rivas said in an interview.

That they apparently enjoyed success among the ranks of DHS is "unfortunately not surprising," she added, citing the department's role in policing immigration — a top Border Patrol agent has promoted far-right "replacement theory," while the ICE union endorsed former President Donald Trump — and founding in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a time of heightened Islamophobia. The nature of its work, and the overt sympathies of some of its members, has made it a more receptive target for extremist recruiting, Carrol Rivas argued.

"It was flawed from the get-go and it continues to be flawed," she said.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The revelation of possible far-right infiltration of federal law enforcement comes after the Department of Defense last year issued a report detailing its own efforts to combat such "extremist activity" within its own ranks. Under guidance issued last December, soldiers are now prohibited from being active members of an extremist group or sharing their content on social media.

It also follows an FBI warning that white supremacists continue to "pose the primary threat" of lethal domestic terrorism, accounting for more than half of all politically motivated killings over the last decade.
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×