If the mustache, neatly trimmed in the style of Adolf Hitler, does not reveal it, then YouTube’s anti-Semitic protests, the testimony of 34 colleagues and neo-Nazi reading material certainly do.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a US Army reservist, is – according to court documents – an “overt white supremacist and a Nazi sympathizer.”
The 30-year-old was charged in January with five counts of Capitol disturbances and denied bail this week after a judge expressed concern about Hale-Cusanelli’s alleged enthusiasm for a “civil war”.
A Navy contractor that prosecutors say “has access to a variety of ammunition,” Hale-Cusanelli may seem like a stranger among the masses that attacked the Capitol on January 6. But the darkest truth is that Hale-Cusanelli was one of dozens of former or current members of the army who were investigated or accused of connection to the Capitol riot – at a time when the Pentagon warns of white supremacy and white nationalism within the military pose a serious threat to the US armed forces.
Hale-Cusanelli was charged with seven crimes, including obstructing proceedings in Congress, in connection with the January 6 attack. The criminal complaint said that Hale-Cusanelli, who worked at the Naval Weapons Station Earle, a support base for military ships, “has access to a variety of ammunition.”
Prosecutors said that on January 14, a confidential source used a listening device to record a conversation with Hale-Cusanelli.
“During this conversation, Hale-Cusanelli admitted to entering the Capitol and encouraging other members of the crowd to ‘move forward’ – giving instructions by means of voice and hand signals,” the billing documents state. “Hale-Cusanelli told the The Guardian that if they had more men, they could have taken over the entire building. “In the recording, Hale-Cusanelli also admitted to picking up a flag and a flagpole, which he later watched as another riotous man shot” like a dart “at a Capitol police officer, the criminal complaint said.
During the investigation, it was discovered that Hale-Cusanelli was able to maintain his security clearance at Station Earle, despite dozens of his co-workers claiming he was open about his beliefs in white supremacy and despite being scolded for appearing to work with a Hitler style Mustache.
In a March 23 motion against Hale-Cusanelli’s bail – he has been in detention since his arrest in mid-January – prosecutors said at least 34 of Hale-Cusanelli’s co-workers said he made no secret of his anti -semitism and racism.
A Navy sailor remembered Hale-Cusanelli saying that if he were a Nazi “he would kill all Jews and eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner”. A naval noncommissioned officer said that Hale-Cusanelli had declared that “Jews, women and blacks were at the base of the totem pole”.
Of the more than 160 people arrested by the end of January, almost one in five were current or ex-military, Reported NPR, and there is evidence that an extremist infiltration of the armed forces is underway.
A Pentagon report released in March found that domestic extremist groups pose a serious threat to the military, both for seeking to recruit members and, most worryingly, because existing extremists enlist in the army to obtain combat training and experience.
According to the Military Times, officials estimate that one in five people charged by the end of February were current or ex-military, with Jacob Fracker and Thomas Robertson among the first to be arrested in connection for their alleged riot roles.
Fracker, 29, is a corporal in the national guard, Robertson, 47, a former military police officer in the army reserve, and the two, who photographed themselves inside the Capitol during the siege, were Virginia police officers until they were fired in turn at the riot. Fracker and Robertson pleaded not guilty to the charges, including disorderly and disturbing conduct in a restricted building, entering and remaining in a restricted building.
Navy veteran Thomas Caldwell is another veteran allegedly involved. He was arrested on January 19 and charged with conspiracy, destruction of government property, obstruction of official prosecution and violent entry or disorderly conduct.
Prosecutors allege that Caldwell, who served as a naval intelligence officer for 19 years, according to the Washington Post, led a band of Oathkeepers – a domestic extremist group – in the Capitol invasion, charges that Caldwell denies.
In charge with Caldwell was Donovan Crawl, a veteran of the Marine Corps, who prosecutors allege to conspire with Caldwell and others to obstruct the Senate’s confirmation of the polling station’s vote.
It is not just the prisons on the Capitol that worry people. In 2020, a coast guard lieutenant was sentenced to 13 years in prison after storing weapons with the intention of killing several Democratic politicians, journalists and socialists.
Federal prosecutors said Christopher Hasson intended to “murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country” and described him as “a domestic terrorist, determined to commit acts dangerous to human life”.
While the Capitol rebellion may have cleared up the problems with extremism that the military faces, there is evidence that the problem has been growing for some time.
A 2019 Military Times survey found that 36% of active duty troops “saw evidence of white and racist supremacist ideologies in the armed forces” – an increase of 22% the previous year. Among ethnic minorities, 53% reported having witnessed racist behavior.
After years of racist vanity and inflamed Trump rhetoric, under the Biden government there is at least an acceptance that there is a problem. In February, Lloyd Austin, the first black defense secretary in the history of the United States, ordered the military to step up its efforts to combat white supremacy in its ranks, initially enforcing existing regulations on extremism in the armed forces.
“The Department of Defense’s job is to keep the United States protected from our enemies,” Austin told the United States Senate Armed Forces Committee in January.
“But we cannot do that if some of these enemies are within our own ranks.”