Are U.S. intelligence officials turning a blind eye to far-right extremism in their ranks?
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
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Hatchet Speed was a virulent racist, avowed Hitler admirer, and active member of the Proud Boys who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He was also a U.S. government intelligence contractor with top-level security clearance who wasn’t arrested for over a year after the riot. And he’s just the latest member of the intelligence community who has been identified among the January 6 attackers.
The Intercept’s reporters are uncovering a disturbing pattern of Capitol rioters with sensitive intelligence positions that raises troubling questions about whether officials are turning a blind eye to far-right extremism in their ranks, despite public pledges to... root it out.
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In February, The Intercept’s James Risen reported that three active-duty Marines were given new intelligence assignments even after they were involved in the January 6 mob.
But what we’ve uncovered about Hatchet Speed may be even more disturbing.
Speed expressed such extreme antisemitic, racist, and genocidal views that it is difficult to understand how he could have remained in the intelligence community for so long without drawing serious scrutiny.
Court records show that Speed expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin after he invaded Ukraine and for Adolf Hitler, who he described as “one of the best people that’s ever been on this earth.” He also told an FBI agent that he wanted to kidnap Jewish leaders including George Soros and senior staff at the Anti-Defamation League and said, “Things are going to get bad enough that people like us are going to band together and straight up start lynching people.”
Speed amassed a huge arsenal of weapons in a panic-buying spree after January 6. And yet he continued to work in sensitive intelligence jobs for months after the insurrection.
The Navy claims that it “does not and will not tolerate supremacist or extremist conduct.” But how does someone like this get top-level security clearance in the first place, much less go undetected for years?
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