Notorious Hate Group Atomwaffen Includes Active-Duty Military

PBS reports that journalists with ProPublica and FRONTLINE gained insight into Atomwaffen’s ideology, aims and membership after obtaining seven months of messages from a confidential chat room used by the group’s members. The chat logs, as well as interviews with a former member, reveal Atomwaffen has attracted a mixture of young men - fans of fringe heavy metal music, a private investigator, firearms aficionados - living in more than 20 states.

But of greater concern is that a number of Atomwaffen members are current or former members of the U.S. military.

ProPublica and FRONTLINE have identified three Atomwaffen members or associates who are currently employed by the Army or Navy. Another three served in the armed forces in the past. Vasillios Pistolis [identified in the PBS article], who remains an active-duty Marine, left Atomwaffen in a dispute late in 2017 and joined up with another white supremacist group. Reporters made the identifications through dozens of interviews, a range of social media and other online posts, and a review of the 250,000 confidential messages obtained earlier this year.

Joshua Beckett, who trained Atomwaffen members in firearms and hand-to-hand combat last fall, served in the Army from 2011 to 2015, according to service records. Online, Beckett, 26, has said that he worked as a combat engineer while in the Army. Combat engineers are the Army’s demolitions experts.

Last year, nearly 25 percent of active-duty service members surveyed by the Military Times said they’d encountered white nationalists within the ranks. The publication polled more than 1,000 service members.

In February 2018, the Seattle Times reported that Atomwaffen a white supremacist group linked to multiple homicides has one of its largest chapters in Washington state, as did KUOW in its report "The covert white supremacist group lurking in Washington state;" and Wenatchee World in its report "Washington state home to one of the largest cells of notorious white supremacist group."

Washington state is not the only place where Atomwaffen is active, but it should be noted that Washington state has a large military presence (Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Fairchild Air Force Base, Naval Base Kitsap, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Naval Station Everett, etc.), and Atomwaffen seeks to recruit military members into its ranks.

Anytime a group (such as our military personnel) becomes a target for recruitment by a violent and extremist faction (such as Atomwaffen) this creates a personal security concern for all members of the group. Most military personnel - the vast majority - simply are not going to lured by the recruitment efforts of groups like Atomwaffen, but as we have seen that doesn't mean that no military member will choose to participate in these extremist activities.