Division In The Ranks?

Special Forces Underground "Resister" Speaks Out

By Vincent H. Miller

ABC News last year interviewed a number of shocked Green Berets regarding training they had been given to prepare them for 1996 gun seizure raids.

In the face of the spectre of disarmament of the American public by military force, the big question now is whether military personnel would fire on American citizens who resisted. In a survey circulated within the military last year, it was found that only 20% would follow orders to fire on Americans during gun seizure raids. On radio talk shows, military officers stated outright that they would be much more inclined to fire on superiors who gave such an order. The big question is how much a criminal Congress can count on the military to do its dirty work for them. During the past year there have been indications that military personnel are not thrilled. Some insiders have gone so far as to divert heavy military materiel into the hands of citizen militias. There are other signs of flies in the ointment for Washington's power brokers.

Enter the Special Forces Underground

The latest development regarding a division in the ranks comes from within the U.S. Army's elite Special Forces Units. A group of soldiers called "The Special Forces Underground" has been publishing a radical newsletter called The Resister. With a revolutionary war "Don't Tread On Me" coiled rattlesnake symbol on its masthead, The Resister has inveighed against Joint Task Force 6, which employs the US military as combattants in the ill-fated war on drugs. They have also warned of government plots to use the Army in gun-confiscation raids. The big surprise comes upon examining The Resister's principles and its views on US foreign policy. Here there are buzz words and phrases that hint strongly of libertarian/Objectivist influence. Indeed, in a description of their philosophy which appeared in its first issue in the summer of 1994, The Resister said it favored: "strict . constitutionalism, isolationism, laissez-faire capitalism, individual rights, limited government and republicanism," and opposed "statism, liberalism, tribalism, socialism, collectivism, internationalism, democracy, altruism, pull politics and the New World Order." Soldiers publishing The Resister are highly critical of U.S. peacekeeping efforts. In a past issue of The Resister they editorialized: "The U.S. military has become a slave service for the wealth redistribution schemes of internationalists and gangs of weeping do-gooder mystics. One need simply note the circling of media carrion-eaters to predict in which Third World toilet these altruists will flush hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars and the lives of U.S. servicemen. Peacekeeping is a monumental fraud."

The Resister vehemently opposed U.S. military involvement in Haiti, and claimed that its adherents among Green Berets sent to Haiti were subverting U.S. policy by telling supporters of the ousted military junta how to hide their weapons and themselves. They also reportedly identified supporters of the restored (communist) President Jean-Bertrand Aristide for future retribution. Needless to say the government is more than just a little concerned by this apparent revolt in the ranks. A researcher who has been tracking the group lamented: "This is very dangerous. These are individuals trained in insurgency warfare and they are the best in the world. They have access to weaponry. If they become more involved with underground paramilitary extremists this is a very bad sign." (emphasis ours) On a CBS News "60 Minutes" show last year two Green Beret Resister editors appeared. With their faces hidden in shadows and their voices altered to disguise their true identities, they fielded questions from reporter Steve Kroft. After the broadcast, Army special operations technicians worked feverishly to "demask" the altered voices by repeated computer analysis and processing. This was defeated by "white noise" and other precautionary electronic countermeasures (we are, after all, dealing with professionals here). One humorous question posed by Kroft was: "The commander says you don't exist." The answer? "Excellent!" The Army, its nose severely out of joint, has called on none other than Command Sergeant Major William H. Rambo Jr. to conduct an investigation to ferret out this blatant exhibition of non-political-correctness.

This task has not proved to be an easy one as The Register staff has exhibited an uncanny ability to avoid detection. According to the February 1996 issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine they have done so by "using the same tradecraft and counterinsurgency skills to avoid detection that they were taught as covert operators by the Army and the Central Intelligence Agency."

However in order to save face, Army brass has been engaged in an intensive witch hunt, rounding up suspects (any suspect/victim) and making examples of them. Curiously, the publication of The Resister is not illegal - so long as it is not publishing on government time or with government equipment and materials. It reportedly satisfies these requirements. So what's the problem?

In a recent interview a SOF journalist observed: "Some Army spokesmen, and some people on Capitol Hill, have described The Resister as an extremist (there's that word again) publication. The reply from The Register editor was: "What they mean is that The Resister is anti-socialist, anti-Communist, and anti-United Nations."

"And that said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress...to prevent the people of the Unites States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms..."

SAM ADAMS, in the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, Aug. 20, 1789.___