Seventy-eight service members were suspected of advocating for the overthrow of the federal government in fiscal year 2023, and 44 others were suspected of engaging or supporting terrorism, Military.com reported. Others were suspected of advocating for discrimination or violence to achieve political outcomes, and there were 58 instances of alleged criminal gang activity.
The figures come from the latest annual report from the DOD inspector general on extremism in the military, which also noted that dozens of the cases were cleared or deemed unsubstantiated.
“During this reporting period, the DOD reported making progress by establishing policies and programs related to diversity management, prevention of and response to sexual assault, and the prevention of prohibited activity within the DOD,” the report concluded. “[U]ntil implementation of standardized processes occurs, the DOD will have inconsistent tracking of prohibited activities participation; problems identifying, collecting, and reporting data from multiple, decentralized systems; and difficulty validating the accuracy of reported data.”
AP photo by Jacquelyn Martin