Secret Facebook groups of special operations officers include racist comments, QAnon posts: report

Special operations officers reportedly shared racist comments and language supporting the QAnon conspiracy theory in secret Facebook groups. 

NBC News reviewed of hundreds of Facebook posts on pages for current and former Rangers, Green Berets and other elite forces and found comments lamenting a so-called deep state run by pedophiles, a hallmark of the QAnon theory. 

One post accused aides to former Vice President Mike Pence of being part of a “Concerted effort by the thieves and pedophiles walking the hallowed halls of the peoples government” to undermine former President Trump.

“In a just world, they would have already been taken out behind the court house and shot,” a user remarked.

Another post reportedly discussed criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement and featured a noose and the message “IF WE WANT TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN WE WILL HAVE TO MAKE EVIL PEOPLE FEAR PUNISHMENT AGAIN.”

Other messages featured conspiracy theories about election fraud in the November presidential race and support for the Jan. 6 insurrection that unsuccessfully sought to halt Congress’s certification of the Electoral College results. 

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the pages or if it plans to flag or remove any messages.

The report is just the latest sign of a growing extremism problem in the Pentagon’s ranks.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier this year ordered a 60-day, force-wide stand down to address extremism in the military after reports showed veterans and active service members participated in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.

He also took steps earlier this month to stand up a working group to review and update the military’s definition of extremism, create standardized questionnaires to screen recruits with current or previous extremist behavior, and create new training and procedures for veterans to report if extremist groups target them after leaving the armed forces.