That’s the only conclusion we at Truthdig can come to when faced with these facts: Recruiters are increasingly admitting neo-Nazis and skinheads into the military, and the number of soldiers kicked out of the military for being gay rose 11% over last year.

Also, allegations of harassment and outright crimes committed by military recruiters are up. (story or .pdf report)

Southern Poverty Law Center: Ten years after Pentagon leaders toughened policies on extremist activities by active duty personnel — a move that came in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing by decorated Gulf War combat veteran Timothy McVeigh and the murder of a black couple by members of a skinhead gang in the elite 82nd Airborne Division — large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists continue to infiltrate the ranks of the world’s best-trained, best-equipped fighting force. Military recruiters and base commanders, under intense pressure from the war in Iraq to fill the ranks, often look the other way. Neo-Nazis “stretch across all branches of service, they are linking up across the branches once they’re inside, and they are hard-core,” Department of Defense gang detective Scott Barfield told the Intelligence Report. “We’ve got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad,” he added. “That’s a problem.” Link

AP: … The Pentagon has said there were 726 military members discharged under the policy last year ? up 11 percent from the year before ? but did not publicly release base-specific information. Link

Reuters: Allegations of wrongdoing by U.S. military recruiters jumped by 50 percent from 2004 to 2005, and criminal violations such as sexual harassment and falsifying documents more than doubled, a congressional agency said on Monday. The Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative agency, said the full extent of violations by military recruiters is unknown because the Defense Department does not have an oversight system. While the GAO said available information likely underestimated the problem, it showed that allegations of recruiter wrongdoing increased to 6,600 cases in fiscal year 2005 from 4,400 a year earlier. Link

actual .pdf report