![]() ![]() But in a statement to VICE News, the Corps couldn’t account for why so many of its former members were recently avowed Nazis or far-right extremists.This article contains SPOILERS for One Piece #1058! In 1986, white supremacist Marines stole weapons from Camp Lejeune, the same base where Collins and Duncan were stationed, then funneled them to their underground paramilitary organization in preparation for their antigovernment activities.īy its own admission, the Marine Corps is aware it is susceptible to extremist influences. For example, in the 1970s at Camp Pendleton, active-duty Marines openly paraded their membership in the Ku Klux Klan, intentionally threatening Black Marines with knives. There is a history of far-right extremists inside the Corps, Beirich said. ![]() “The anecdotal evidence is piling up that there is something weird about the Marines.” The Corps, Beirich added, is known as a “really, really macho, violent institution” that might attract more extremists and is generally seen as “a lot more belligerent than some of the other services.” death squads during a tour in Afghanistan. with unnamed co-conspirators.Ĭourt records show Tindall is heading to trial in the fall and has maintained his innocence, but the Marines did tell VICE News that Tindall was booted in 2019 because the “character of his service was incongruent with the Marine Corps' values.” (Tindall’s lawyer declined to comment on whether the domestic terror plot that the Georgia native was accused of being involved in was connected to the far-right.)Īs early as 2012-well before the far-right problem among American servicemen became widely known-a unit of Marine Scout Snipers was photographed proudly and openly brandishing a flag of the Nazi S.S. Similarly, another former Marine, Nicholas Tindall, was implicated in a domestic terrorist plot against critical infrastructure in the U.S. Though the plans never materialized, the FBI investigation that followed led to Owens being booted from the Corps for his involvement. In June, the Daily Beast reported that Travis Owens, an active-duty Marine, had plotted killing members of the Democratic National Committee and people of color with two other individuals, one tied to AWD. Some of the alleged terror plots tied to Marines, like the latest involving Collins, Jordan, and Hermanson, are elaborate. He was subsequently charged and booted from the Corps for his ties to the group. One of the earliest members of AWD, Vasilios Pistolis, 23, was a former Marine whom ProPublica and Frontline outed for his involvement in the terror group in 2018. Though these numbers account for only a tiny fraction of those Marines who enlist and serve, the problem is worth noting, especially given the USMC’s past.įriday’s charges also noted that the four men had made a video shooting weapons and wearing the trademark skull masks popularized by the neo-Nazi terror group Atomwaffen Division (AWD), which has been under a yearslong FBI crackdown and is connected to several terrorism-related crimes in the U.S. The Corps reported to NPR in April that it had, in the past three years alone, found 16 cases of extremism within its ranks. Over the past three years, at least seven former Marines have openly avowed or been identified with neo-Nazism or the extreme right, with some alleged to have been involved in planned terrorist acts. According to the new charges, both men “discussed using homemade Thermite” to “burn through and destroy power transformers” and also “stole military gear, including magazines for assault-style rifles.” Two of the conspirators, Liam Collins, 21, and Jordan Duncan, 26, are ex-Marines who were formerly stationed at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. In the latest filing, four men were charged with planning a coordinated, armed assault on a power station somewhere in the U.S. The document also had an all-too-familiar detail: Former American service members using, prosecutors claim, their tradecraft to plan an attack.Īnd although it has unfortunately become commonplace to see veterans connected to domestic extremism, two of these men were part of a military branch that has repeatedly popped up when it comes to neo-Nazis: The United States Marine Corps (USMC). Last Friday, the Department of Justice released one of the latest in an endless string of indictments involving white men subscribing to the tenets of the far right and planning acts of terror in the U.S. ![]()
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