国际英语新闻:Nearly 400 suspected cases of right-wing extremism under investigation in German armed force

BERLIN, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Germany's Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) is currently investigating 391 suspected cases of right-wing extremism in the German armed forces (Bundeswehr), the magazine Spiegel reported Friday.

According to the report, MAD had launched 286 new investigations in 2017 alone. So far, three cases of right-wing extremism have been confirmed this year, including a right-wing extremist, lieutenant Franco A., who was suspected to have been planning a false-flag terrorist attack.

Two other soldiers were suspended on account of engaging in the neo-Nazi "National Democratic Party" (NPD) and the white-supremacist "Identitarian Movement."

Following the widely-publicized discovery of the suspected terror cell surrounding Franco A., MAD established a new early-warning system to identify right-wing extremists in the German armed forces.

The magazine cited an official response by the defense ministry to a parliamentary inquiry into the matter, saying that 3,320 soldiers had been screened accordingly during their recruitment, and none of them were flagged for extremism or terrorism.

Left Party (Linke) speaker Ulla Jelpke, who launched the parliamentary inquiry, criticized the armed forces' handling of right-wing extremists, and called for deprivation of the suspected radicals' access to weapons until the charges were resolved.