>> the hearing will come to order. the hearing is to discuss a very important issue and one that hopefully will get some important answers to. this issue could not be more urgent. a dangerous white supremacist group called the base was arrested. they aren't your parents neo nazis. they are paganistic, anarcic group. they hate jews and african-americans but they don't like president trump or the united states either. their goal is to use terrorism to start a race war and collapse the united states. it's claimed more lives than international terror since 9/11. last week fbi director wray told the sjudiciary committee he was elevated, rationally motivated, violent extremism to a national threat priority. the same ban with home grown violent extremism and isis. unkwoets. our enemy, especially russia exploit these racial tensions to divide and weaken american society. the head of the base lives in russia. russia likely supports white supreme assist groups in the united states and europe. their target are service members with disinformation. when our enemies take advantage of our vulnerabilities our national security is threatened and dependent on a sufficient response. they recruit to join and train members. second, there are several warning signs that individuals with white nationalists and supremacists tendencies are serving in our military. recent kpampexamples include a e attending the charlottesville ral rally. the number of troops who have witnessed evidence of white supremacists and rational ideologies in the military increased from 22 to 36% from 2018 to 2019. like in previous decades, marked by vents such as charlottesville have increased in recent years is likely increased in the military as well. supremacists put service members safety, recruitment and retention at risk. third, i'm concerned that it doesn't take the military -- i'm concerned that the military doesn't take this threat seriously enough. our vetting enterprise lumps white supremacists activity in with gang affiliation rather than treat it as a national security issue on par with foreign terror. t even if they are dealing with it, the military lacks statistics to prove it. in part because the absence of stand alone ucmj extremism article. this raises hard questions about whether military law enforcement needs additional authorities to combat this terror threat. today we'll be joined by two panels. the first will consist of organizations that study, track and educate on extremism. on the second we'll have dod officials responsible for the policy for the military counter intelligence and law enforcement security and the military criminal investigation agencies. i'd like to focus on three main concerns today. first, what is the scope and magnitude och this threat and what are it ts impacts. second, what is being done to prevent these individuals from entering the military and find, investigate and prosecute them. do military leaders take this issue seriously enough? some of the testimony will suggest many of them are just administratively discharged. nothing further is done about them. that is inconsistent with our need to make sure that the country is secure as well. third, what additional tools might we need to give the military to combat this threat? let me let ranking member kelly have his opening remarks. >> thank you. wish to welcome both of our panels to the hearing. i've dealt with white supremacy on the first line as an attorney. from murder, rape, assault, intimidation to officer shootings. i've dealt with all those things in my district in mississippi during my time as a prosecutor and a district attorney. i've also served in the military for 34 years. no group is more diverse or culturally integrated than our united states military. none, anywhere. we must keep it that way. it should be a cultural site where people can go to know what right looks like and we have to keep it that way. it's an important hearing to make sure we keep us at the basis we are. i think extremist activities of any kind are unacceptable and cannot be tolerated in the military. they cut to the very core of what the military was founding on. good order and discipline. the thought of extremist activity is in direct contrast to the foundation of what the military stands. soldiers must and do chus each other with their lives regardless of their backgrounds or the color of their skin. service members are based on the ability to perform their job and the con tetent of their charact. any other distinction s have no place in the military or society. i'm interested in learning the true magnitude. i raelds ealized we don't have of reliable data on this. dod is tracking investigation sboos white supremacy as well as other extremist activities and sharing this information with fbi. this is a step in the right direction on the law enforcement side but i think data is a huge key to unpacking the issue. we needed to find the problem and get reliable data on how prevalent it is in the military. on panel one i'd like to understand the magnitude of white supremacy activity and what data is being tracked outside of the military. i'm also interested in your recommendations specifically as they pertain to training and data collection for the military. on panel two, i'd like to hear about the department skreepi is processes and ongoing monitoring of activities. there may be a gap in the reporting of the non-criminal cases that have been handled administratively that resulted in an administrative discharge. i'd like to understand dod's way forward on this issue and whether we need to have standardized training across the services. i want to thank our witnesses and our chairwoman. thank you for being here and i yields back. >> thank you ranking member kelly. thank you witnesses for joining us today. you'll have five minutes to present your testimony. our first panel started with dr. heidi co-founder and chief strategy founder of hate and extremism. we'll take a short recess and switch out to our second panel at the end of the first panel. would you like to begin? >> yes, i'd like to thank the esteemed member offense the issue subcommittee. i have a phd in political science from purdue university. for the last two decades i have researched extremist activity in the united states and monitored white supremacists in the military forwarding that information to military investigators. i also argued, as i will today, for more individual lanvigilant policies to root it out. nothing should be taken to impugn the men and women who serve in the armed forces whose eftss i applauds. barring whiets iss inring white the utmost importance. many of us know former soldiers who have gone onto commit serious acts of terrorism. timothy mcvey in oklahoma city is the one people think of. this isn't an old problem. active duty troops have been involved in white supremacy gro groups, responsible for murders. white supremacy and the terror associated with it is on the rise. in fact, bucking the trend of declining rates of terror globally. we have growing white supre supremacist groups in the united states and abroad. this is significant tlets hreat our troops. the armed services know that white supremacy is a problem. it's already been cited. there's been a poll three years in a row that shows between one and four and one in three soldiers are aware -- have encountered white nationalism and racism in the armed forces. here are my to level recommendations to deal with white supremacy in the armed forces. it's very clear that screening measures need strengthening. the military doesn't have a tattoo database to show tattoos. it doesn't monitor social media accounts. it might be wise to see how the active duty troops online activity. a coast guard who has all this horrible stuff online tells us what this could lead to. they fill out questionnaires that ask if they were a member of an organization dedicated to terrorism but this relies on self-reporting and it's unclear how much that self-reporting is verified. there's need for more rigorous enforcement procedures and data. there's little data in the public domain to know how serious this problem is. all of these are serious issues as well as it being unclear how information on extremists in one branch or shared with other branches or the guard or the fbi. there was a house amendment that add questions about white nationalism to military climate surveys that was dropped out of the national defense authorization act. this should be looked at again. there are also loopholes in the rudy giulianilations for oth other regulations fp movement. these are people who believe in war against the federal government and are increasingly anti-immigrant and anti-muslim and some of these organizations have thousands of members and specifically try to recruit from the armed forces. so that's something i would suggest also needs to be looked at. the military needs to report hate crimes statistics to the fbi. frankly, all federal agencies need to but this is another piece of data that would be helpful four understanding these problems. and there also is evidence, the existence of extremists in the rank contributing to worldwide terrorism. members have recruited veterans from the wars in iraq and afghanistan as well as active duty service members and that military expertise is now being shared with white supremacists in other countries, something that merits examination. i also want to say it's very important that everybody in leadership speak out against white supremacy in the ranks. this is a bipartisan issue. it has been for a long time and it should really be a no-brainer this has to be done by everybody from the commander in chief on down. so in closing, i want to just say i agree with former joint chiefs chairman general joseph dunford who said there is no place for bigotry and racism in the u.s. military or united states as a whole. i hope the policies suggests i provided here and in writing can bring us closer to eradicating these ideas in the ranks. honor to speak here. >> thank you dr. beirich. next. >> chairwoman speier, ranking member kelly, distinguished members of the subcommittee. good afternoon. i'm mark pitvavage. it is an honor to appear to address the issue of white supremacy in the u.s. military. for decades they have fought against hate, anti-semitism by exposing extremist groups and individuals who spread hate and incite violence. today adl is the foremost governmental authority on domestic terrorism, extremist, hate groups and hate crimes. the issue of extremism in the military is one we have tracked for years. we alert the services about military members tied to extremism, provide assistance upon request to recruiters and investigators and offer training on extremism and related subjects, for example, adl provides handle training to the command staff of the army criminal investigation command and provost marshall general. in 2009 adl wrote secretary of defense robert m gates urging him to take measures to deal with it in the armed forces. the problem has only grown in urgency since then. in my testimony i would like to share important context about the nature of extremism in the armed forces. our active and reserve components are large enough, numbering over 2 million men and women to reflect broader american society in key ways including the presence of extremism. each time the white supremacist movement has surged that surge has been mir othered by a similar increase within the armed forces. it happened during surges in the 1980s, the 1990s and the 2008 to 2011. today it is happening again as the u.s. is experiencing a surge in white supremacy propelled by the rise of the alt-right which has brought many young newly radicalized white males into the white supremacy movement. this is aggravated by the spread of hate online. with each surge the military incurs not only an increase in extremists but also increases in crime and violence that accompany that. extremists in the military have planned terrorist acts. they've engaged in murders and hate crimes and stolen weapons and military equipment. and they provided information to other extremists. the current surge of white supremacy is no exception. less than two weeks ago coast guard lieutenant christopher hassan was sentenced in federal court to 13 years in prison in connection with the plot to commit domestic terrorism. prosecutors described him as a man inspired by racist murders who intended to exact retribution on minorities and those he considered traitors. had law enforcement not caught him, they noted we would now be counting the bodies of the defendant's victims. internet searches he made included where do congressmen and senators live when they are in d.c. how to rid the u.s. of jews and most liberal federal judges among others. he wrote, i can't strike just a wound. i must find a way to deliver a blow that cannot be shaken off. other extremists in the military in recent years have distributed information related to explosives and wmds, assaulted people during white supremacist rallies and acquired bombs and explosives and used a firearm to threaten members of a morph. even more have been exposed attending whitie supremacist events and posting to white supremacist chat forums online. the presence of them in the armed forces is dangerous to service members, their families and others and harmful to the good order, discipline, morale and effectiveness of our troops. it is a problem that the military cannot afford to ignore. adl's experiences working with the services have caused up concern that policies and regulations are not always widely or uniformly implemented. nor are key personnel always trained in systemic fashion. we encourage you to work with the department and the services to ensure uniformity and clarity of regulations to provide proper training for those involved in recruitment, discipline and military justice on how to respond to evidence of extremism. we offer our expertise and experience to help the services tackle this issue including developing curricula or train the trainer event, most importantly, we encourage all d.o.t. and military leaders as well as you to speak out against hate. setting an example from the top is essential. we must protect the men and women who protect our nation. thank you. >> thank you. next is miss brooks. >> thank you, chairwoman speier, ranking member kelly, my name is lisa brooks, a daughter of the veteran of the kane war, mother of a son who proudly served the u.s. army for two tours. this issue is deeply personal to me. the white nationalist movement in the united states is surging and presents a serious danger to our country and its institutions. including the u.s. armed forces. recent investigations have revealed dozens of veterans and active duty service member as fill yachted with white nationalist activity. far from a new problem. in fact, the southern poverty law center has been documents white nationalists and white supremacists infiltration of the military and urging officials to take action since 1986. in that year, we wrote defense secretary weinberger and exposed the fact that active duty marines at camp lejeune were participating in paramilitary ku klux klan activities and even stealing military weaponry for klan use. in december 2019, as was mentioned, it was reported that the national defense authorization act was altered in the u.s. senate to remove the mention of white nationalists in the screening process for military enlistee s. according to the 2019 poll that was referenced by the military times, 36% of active duty service members who were surveyed reported seeing signs of white national imor racist ideology in the u.s. armed forces. in the same survey more than half of the service members of color reported experiencing incidents of racism or racist ideology. a number of plots by white nationalists have been thwarted. the arrest of lieutenant christopher paul hassan, a 49-year-old serving in the coast guard provides a recent example. hasten who spent time in the marine corps and army national guard was recently sentenced to more than 13 years in prison. he explicitly identified as white nationalist and advocated for the establishment of a white ethno state. they have identified them among the most dangerous groups. those groups include the autumn waffen division responsible for five murders since 2017. brandon russell who launched it in 2015 served in the florida army national guard. after his roommate devin arthurs killed two other roommates also member of autumn waffen police found explosive materials. a framed photo of army veteran and oklahoma city bomber timothy mcveigh was found in his bedroom. he also possessed flyers that read, don't prepare for exams, prepare for race war. it appears russell joined the national guard in order to receive the kind of skills he would need to prepare for that potential race war. altogether investigators have found seven members of autumn waffen who served in the military. because of their sophisticated weapons and explosives training those members significantly increase the group's pe toengs it carry out deadly attacks. russell has witness sentenced to five years in prison on charges related to the explosive materials found in the apartment. from prison he has attempted to send instructions for building explosives to another member of the neo-nazi group. the recent arrest of two trained soldiers one from the united states and one from canada who belonged to a terroristic white nationalist group called the base heightened fears they are forming paramilitary cells. in 200 of the splc released a report highlighting the presence of them in the military and once again reached out to ask the department of defense to implement a zero tolerance policy on them. and, again in 2008 and 2009. we wrote letters to the d.o.d. urging investigations. today the splc offers the following recommendations. one, adopt and rig oreo lust enforce a policy on anything against that and two require an annual report from military leadership that includes an audit of all investigations and resolutions of white nationalists and white supremacist activity. three, blunt the reach and impact of white nationalists and supremacists' ideology by offering support services that work to deradicalize service members exposed to hateful and violent messages. we urge this committee and this congress to purge from is rank those who would mar the reputation and courageous work of our u.s. service members. thank you. >> thank you, miss brookses. thank you for your testimony. it's jarring to say the very least and is a very important wake-up call for all of us. you have offered a number of recommendations. i'd like to maybe use lieutenant hassan to the extent that we can -- there's public information. what -- was there social media, maybe i should ask this of the next panel actually. let me ask you this, we've got the dark web so individuals can gravitate toward the dark web to engage in their social media if they're so inclined. how would you recommend that the military do the kind of monitor that's necessary? doctor? >> well, honestly oftentimes to find social media accounts you don't have to go into super secret areas to find them. it's material that tends to be oftentimes on everything from facebook accounts, twitter, or fortran. that's not to say there aren't parts hidden bur people are shockingly open about their extremist views. and it's the kind of material that should be easy for investigators or people talking to potential recruits to verify, especially if they're self-reporting that they're not involved in terrorist organizations or extremist organizations. you can find a lot of this material without too much difficulty. and i would advise that that seems like the first screening mechanism that should be done, workplace wo