WASHINGTON — It's been two years since the military took steps to root out extremism in the armed forces but it turns out, the Department of Defense has done very little since then.
The Countering Extremism Working Group was created by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In April of this year, USS Harry S. Truman's sailor David Elizalde became the fifth active duty service member to be arrested by federal law enforcement for participating in the Capitol riot.
According to the George Washington University's Project on Extremism, out of 968 defendants charged with crimes stemming from that day, 131 -- or 13% -- have some form of military background.
The DOD working group released six recommendations on how to combat extremist ideology in the ranks. But the Pentagon has only acted on one of them: the one having to do with training service members on what constitutes extremist activities and why that is prohibited.
Other measures on screenings of recruits, updating military justice measures and oversight of potential insider threats have not.
DOD Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh was asked last Thursday if the others would ever be acted upon.
"All recommendations have been assigned [and] are with appropriate staff, but at this time, I just have nothing more to announce," she said.
A DOD Inspector General report last December found that 211 investigations were launched into reports of domestic extremism between October 2021 and September 2022. Of those, 48 service members faced military legal action and 112 service members were referred to civilian law enforcement for investigation.
The Senate Armed Services Committee last year called on the DOD to halt its programs to root out extremism. A report accompanying the panel's version of the National Defense Authorization Act stated in part: "Spending additional time and resources to combat exceptionally rare instances of extremism in the military is an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds and should be discontinued immediately."