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THEOn January 6, Jackie Speier was one of dozens of members of Congress threatened by the mob of violent Trump supporters and white supremacists who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the presidential election results.
Along with her peers, she was told to wear a gas mask and ordered to lie prostrate on the marble floor as the barking crowd pounded on the bedroom door and the sound of gunfire tore the room apart. ‘air. The terror of that day caused a flashback in her, to the events that brought her into politics in the first place when she was bleeding from five gunshot wounds in the Guyanese jungle, not knowing whether she would live or die. .
It was November 18, 1978, and she had visited Guyana as part of a Congressional inquiry into the Jonestown settlement and its cult leader, Jim Jones. The 24-person investigative group was ambushed by cult members on an airstrip in the jungle; the Congressman Speier worked for then, Leo Ryan, and four others were murdered.
Speier, shot five times and left for dead, had to wait 10 p.m. for help to arrive. She told herself as she lay on the tarmac that if she survived the ordeal, she would devote herself to public service.
This devotion, which arose from his gunshot wounds, can be traced in a direct line from the Jonestown Massacre, to the Capitol Uprising on January 6, to his renewed efforts today to protect the United States from the threat of violent extremism. She is determined to strengthen the safeguards against cults – be they of the Jonestown variety or Donald Trump and the white supremacist sedition he unleashed.
“Jim Jones was a religious cult leader, Donald Trump is a political cult leader,” Speier told The Guardian. “As a victim of violence and a cult leader, I am sensitive to behavior that smacks of this. We must be wary of anyone who can have such control over people that they lose their ability to think independently.
Speier ran for her first election shortly after the Jonestown Massacre. Since 2008, the Democratic MK has represented most of the California District that her downcast mentor Ryan served before his death.
The formative experience that gave rise to his political career gives Speier an unusually sharp perspective on the danger posed by the Capitol uprising. She sees this as ‘group thinking’, saying that ‘when group thinking is to overthrow the government then we have a serious problem’.
Since January 6, Speier has used his political strength as a member of the armed services and House intelligence committees to push for urgent reforms designed to strengthen protections against white supremacy and extremist violence. Last month, she wrote to Joe Biden and his newly confirmed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, calling for a “new sense of urgency” following the “appalling events on Capitol Hill.”
In her letter, Speier told the President and Secretary of Defense that she had become “increasingly alarmed” by the links between violent extremist groups and military personnel. She warned them that current efforts to contain the problem were “insufficient in the face of the threat from these extremist movements.”
In his interview with The Guardian, Speier said the current crisis in white supremacy and the military has been brewing for many years. “I thought it was urgent a year ago when I held a hearing on violent extremism in the army and I was amazed at the number of soldiers recruited in part because of their training in these groups extremists.
She added: “It’s not like we haven’t been warned.”
A recent CNN analysis of the first 150 people arrested for participating in the Capitol uprising found that at least 21 had military experience. Some were still in service, and eight were former Marines with elite training in the art of war.
Speier said such training has created problems for the nation. “With military training, you become skilled at using deadly weapons, ambushing, and gaining control. Training is important in fighting our enemies, but it is now used as a recruiting tool for organizations engaged in violent extremism.
The congresswoman brought up the case of retired Lt. Col. Larry Brock who has been charged with illegal entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Hill. She said: “An Air Force Academy graduate was identified early in his life as an excellent military leader who reached the rank of lieutenant colonel, and here he is in the Senate in zippered handcuffs.
Prosecutors said Brock’s handcuffs were meant to take hostages.
Following the 2020 hearing that Speier called as chair of the Military Personnel Subcommittee, she proposed the creation of a stand-alone violent extremism offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The Pentagon backed the idea, but it was crushed by Trump’s insistence and resistance from Republicans in the US Senate.
She now plans to reintroduce the proposal into this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. “Sometimes people have to be hit on the head before they recognize that there is a problem, and January 6 was definitely a two-by-four to the head,” she said.
Under the existing military code, military personnel must be “active” participants in an extremist group to be sanctioned. Speier’s panel heard of an Air Force officer who was engaged with Identity Evropa, a white supremacist group that recruits on U.S. college campuses.
Even after an official investigation, the officer was allowed to continue his military service. “So you have a problem with the lazy enforcement of a law that allows you to participate in a white supremacist group, you just cannot be an ‘active’ participant.”
A Military Times poll last year found that a third of all serving troops, more than half of black members and other members of the minority, said they had witnessed white nationalism in the ranks. Dozens of active-duty and veteran military personnel have been arrested in recent years in connection with terrorist plots and murders.
Last July, an Air Force sergeant linked to the anti-government boogaloo movement was charged with the murder of a federal security guard in Oakland, California.
Speier urges Biden to use his executive powers to identify white supremacy and extremism as a specific threat within the military. She also wants him to sign an executive order that would ensure all military recruits and those seeking high-level security clearances are screened for signs of violent extremist activity on their social media accounts.
“It’s amazing to me that we’re drawn into the 21st century, because it has to do with how social media has become a tool for these violent fringe organizations.
Speier said all of these measures were urgently needed before Jan.6. Trump’s open dialogue with extremist organizations has heightened the need for action, she said.
“Donald Trump had a code for speaking to these groups. “There are good people on both sides”, “We love you”, “You are special”. He recognized that they were valuable to him and they recognized that he could amplify their recruiting. It was a toxic drink for personal gain, and it endangered the whole democracy of this country.
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