All the indicators show that Aaron Bushnell became a radicalized far-left socialist/anarchist who hated the military while working in an Air Force intelligence wing that focuses on cryptologic and SIGINT (NSA work) — thus he was a major security threat.
But when a reporter asked whether he would fit the profile of an “Extremist” according to DOD, the DOD spokesman hemmed and hawed and wouldn’t answer the question. Guess Bushnell doesn’t fit the DOD narrative of the right kind of extremist. Many service members said when they were forced to take the Anti-Extremist training after January 6 that there was no mention of BLM, Antifa and other left-wing extremism.
Here’s some background:
An active duty US Airman who served with the US Air Force’s 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing set himself on fire–in his combat fatigues–as a political statement in support of Palestine (and as an extension terrorist organization, Hamas) in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, calling Israel a “colonizer”.
One of his friends said, “He is one of the most principled comrades I’ve ever known.”
Another talked about his work in San Antonio with the homeless, “He spent every penny and second he had on serving his community…And living his anarchist principles in action.” His Twitch username was “LillyAnarKitty“.
Another person called him, “the kindest, gentlest, silliest little kid in the Air Force,” adding, “He’s always trying to think about how we can actually achieve liberation for all with a smile on his face.”
He was 25 years old and joined the Air Force in May 2020, at the beginning of DOD’s massive CRT (Oppressor’s vs the Oppressed)/DEI agenda push after the Floyd case. He would have also be in the Anti-Extremism stand down training.
He posted the day before his act that “whiteness erases culture” and:
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”
Minutes before his act, he filmed himself in uniform saying:
“My name is Aaron Bushnell, I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide.”
“I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
U.S. Airman Self-Immolates in Front of Israeli Embassy in D.C. Yelling ‘Free Palestine’ (Breitbart News, 26 Feb 2024)
A 25-year-old member of the United States Air Force self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, yelling “Free Palestine!” according to reports. The airman, identified as Aaron Bushnell, broadcasted his entire self-immolation on the streaming site Twitch.. . . . (read more)
AARON BUSHNELL, WHO SELF-IMMOLATED FOR PALESTINE, HAD GROWN DEEPLY DISILLUSIONED WITH THE MILITARY (The Intercept, 28 FEB 2024)
. . . The Reddit poster turned to the military and was initially enamored with the Air Force, but quickly came to denounce it.
In the months leading up to Bushnell’s act of self-immolation, several of acebush1’s posts showed how sharply their view of the military had shifted. On the r/Airforce subreddit, a user asked veterans whether, in hindsight, they would still choose to join the military. Acebush1 answered, “Absolutely not.”
“I have been complicit in the violent domination of the world,” they said, “and I will never get the blood off my hands.” . . . .
. . . . The acebush1 Reddit user joined the military soon after posting about their financial struggles at the beginning of the pandemic. On March 19, 2020, acebush1 inquired about becoming an Uber Eats driver. The following month they posted asking for financial help: “HELP – Can’t get stimulus or unemployment benefits, about to run out of money.”
In May, acebush1 posted a photo with the caption “My Dad getting suited up to give me a goodbye? hug before I leave for BMT” — basic military training. According to Bushnell’s LinkedIn page, he enrolled in “Basic & Technical Training” in the Air Force in May 2020.
Several months into enrollment, acebush1 appeared excited by the Air Force, reposting a video of a military aircraft in August 2020 and giving it a heading that said: “Man, the Air Force does some cool-ass shit.”
Nearly a year later, acebush1’s posts shifted from largely video game-based content to posts with titles like “Solidarity with Prisoners!” with a link to a Guardian article about an Alabama prison strike, and to reposting a meme image of anarchist philosopher Max Stirner.
In 2023, acebush1 made a post with the title “Free Palestine!” and linked to a video of an activist takeover of UAV Tactical Systems, a drone company operated in part by the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems.
Shortly after the pro-Palestine post, in June 2023, acebush1 wrote, “I’m sticking it out to the end of my contract as I didn’t realize what a huge mistake it was until I was more than halfway through, and I only have a year left at this point. However it is a regret I will carry the rest of my life.”
Acebush1’s posts became more stridently pro-Palestinian as Israel’s war in Gaza got underway. In one, they denounce Israel as a “settler colonialist apartheid state,” and exclaim that there are no Israeli “civilians” because the entire country is engaged in oppression. They refuse on several occasion to denounce armed Palestinian resistance, saying in the apartheid post that they “work for the air force and would also have no right to complain about violent resistance against my actions.”
In November 2023, acebush1 made another post describing “the moral necessity of getting out.”
In the last few months, acebush1 accelerated their posting across various anarchism-related Reddit communities, as well as on other various communities. “Piracy is always ethical,” acebush1 posted. “If you think that you’re making a difference with who you do and don’t choose to give your money to, you don’t understand how markets work.”
Acebush1’s last Reddit post was on February 24, expounding on how “whiteness erases culture” — a day before Bushnell’s self-immolating direct action. In an earlier post, acebush1 had written, “I’ve never been one for bullshit.”
The Life & Death of Aaron Bushnell: U.S. Airman Self-Immolates Protesting U.S. Support for Israel in Gaza (Democracy Now, 28 FEB 24)
(Guests for this podcast): …. Ann Wright is a 29-year U.S. Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a colonel and a former U.S. diplomat. In March of 2003, she resigned over the War in Iraq. She has since worked with the antiwar groups CodePink and Veterans for Peace. And joining us from Southfield, Michigan, is Levi Pierpont, who was a friend of Aaron Bushnell. They met at basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, in May 2020. Levi went on to become a conscientious objector.
LEVI PIERPONT: Yes. So, I met Aaron Bushnell in basic training. And from the first day that I met him, I could tell that he was just a really sweet person. I could tell very quickly that he had a strong sense of justice. We became friends. And whenever people in basic training would talk about me or would talk about him, we would stick up for each other. And he always stuck up for me.
And I did end up getting out as a conscientious objector. And we spoke throughout that process. And at the time that I began to make headway with the process and it began to near its end — I got out in July of 2023 — he felt like he was already close enough to his own end date that he decided not to take the same path. And I understood that, because the conscientious objector process can take over a year. And so, I knew that he was still in.
And then he went to do SkillBridge at Ohio, and that’s when I met him in Toledo on January 5th. And that was the first time I had seen him since basic training. And it was, unfortunately, the last time I saw him. And, of course, you know, the other day, I heard what had happened. So, yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Levi, in those conversations, did you get a sense of why Aaron initially decided to join the military and how his views evolved about the U.S. military?
LEVI PIERPONT: Yes. I know when we first talked, we shared similar goals and interests in the military. We wanted to sort of get out of our bubble, to explore the United States, to explore the world, to meet people from other backgrounds. And so, I remember when we both found out where we were stationed, it was kind of ironic. I found out I’d be stationed in Minot Air Force Base, and he found out he was going to be going back to Lackland, where we went to basic training. And so we both felt like maybe we were going to explore a little bit less than we thought, but we were ready for our careers.
And I know that over the years, both of us shifted, of course, in our beliefs regarding war, largely because of what we saw in the military, largely because of the things that we learned because we were a part of it. And I know that he and I both were encouraged by people on YouTube that were writing video essays about social justice movements in the United States.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Levi Pierpont, I wanted to ask you — you grew up as an evangelical Christian. Aaron Bushnell attended Catholic religious services while at basic training. How do you think his religious views informed his beliefs and, ultimately, his action?
LEVI PIERPONT: I think, ultimately, by the time that he did what he did, he didn’t identify with any particular religion. But I know that for me, even though I’m more agnostic than I grew up, my evangelical roots still influence me. They influence my sense of justice. And they told me since I was a young child that you have to stand up for what you believe in. And I can imagine that it was the same way for Aaron. And so, even though I don’t believe that he still believed in the Catholic faith by the time that he died, I know that that upbringing had a profound impact on him, and I’m sure that it influenced his sense of justice.
…AMY GOODMAN: And do you know, Levi, as we have just 10-15 seconds, would Aaron have described this as suicide?
LEVI PIERPONT: No, absolutely not.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain.
LEVI PIERPONT: It was — he didn’t have thoughts of suicide. He had thoughts of justice. That’s what this was about. It wasn’t about his life. It was about using his life to send a message.
. . . The unidentified friend said the pair had talked on the phone two weeks before about how they were both anarchists — and the need for sacrifice. . . .
Friends also described a young man who had grown increasingly disillusioned with the military and his country and its social ills, particularly after the cop-brutality death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.
Bushnell — who gave a thumb’s up to two Ohio anarchy groups on his Facebook page — grew to take a stand against all state-sanctioned violence and even mulled leaving the military before his enlistment time ran out, said a pal, Levi Pierpont, who told the outlet he had a lunch of buttered chicken with him last month in Ohio.
. . . .Lupe Barboza, 32, said she met Bushnell at a socialist-group event in San Antonio in 2022 and he also was hellbent on helping the local homeless.
“He knows that he has privilege as a white man and a member of the military,” she told the outlet.
Pierpont, 23, who met Bushnell in basic training, said his friend decided to tough it out in the Air Force because he was close to his end date of service in May and the course in Ohio would help him transition out of military service.
The pal said Bushnell told him he hoped to get a private-sector job that would earn him enough money to allow him to continue his political activism. (New York Post)
. . . .Pierpont said he grew disillusioned with the military over time — concerned with what he saw as flippant attitudes toward violence within the force — and said he left as a conscientious objector. (The Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his account.) By 2024, Bushnell had become more open about his objections to the military, Pierpont said. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis in 2020, Bushnell told Pierpont he had started to research the history of the United States and wanted to take a stand against all state-sanctioned violence. (Boston Globe)
He posted on Reddit, according to researcher Kyle Orton, “Israel is a white supremacist, ethnonationalist, settler-colonial apartheid state. It was created by the UK 75 years ago and is propped up by US support. It has no right to exist.”
He also defended Hamas’s murder of innocent civilians, including young women attending a music festival during the terrorist attack. He posted, “…those people’s fun at the music festival was specifically built on Palestinian suffering. There are no innocent civilians in [settler] colonialism. Being a settler is inherently violent.” (Breitbart)
The Air Force identified the Airman who died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy on Feb. 25 as Senior Airman Aaron James Bushnell, a cyber defense operations specialist assigned to the 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing.
Originally from Whitman, Mass., the 25-year-old Bushnell first joined the Air Force on May 5, 2020. His duty station was the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas.
His duty title was innovation services technician, and his decorations included the Meritorious Unit Award, National Defense Service Medal, Air Force Good Conduct Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and Air Force Training Ribbon.
“When a tragedy like this occurs, every member of the Air Force feels it,” Col. Celina Noyes, commander of the 70th ISR Wing, said in a statement. “We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Senior Airman Bushnell. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and we ask that you respect their privacy during this difficult time.” (Air & Space Forces)
Major General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said during a press briefing on Monday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is following the situation.
“They do plan to provide additional information 24 hours after next of kin notifications are complete,” said Ryder, adding that the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department has the lead for responding to questions about that incident. “It certainly is a tragic event. We do extend our condolences to the Airman’s family.
When asked by another press member whether Bushnell could be considered an extremist under the Pentagon’s definition of extremism, Ryder declined to respond and again called the situation “tragic.” (Newsweek)
Q: Another question, on the Airmen Bushnell, would he be considered an extremist under the Pentagon’s definition of extremism? But – because I know this has been an issue for the Pentagon. And has he ever come up on the radar at all in the past?
GEN. RYDER: Yes. It – Mike, at this point, again, you know, like I said earlier, the Air Force has confirmed his death. I’m not able to provide additional details about this particular airman. And the Air Force will, after 24 hours from next of kin notification, again, I would just highlight that it’s certainly a tragic event. And again, our condolences go out to his family.
Q: It’s not the Air Force that determines whether or not he’s a “extremist?” I mean, this (inaudible) the Pentagon?
GEN. RYDER: Yes, I’m not going to characterize the situation other than, again, it’s very, very tragic. (DOD Press Conference)
COTTON TO AUSTIN: WHY WAS AIRMAN WHO SELF-IMMOLATED ALLOWED TO SERVE? (Press Release)
Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, asking him to provide information of the active-duty U.S. airman who self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. on February 25. S
enator Cotton asked Secretary Austin to respond to the “serious questions” by March 7 as to why the airman was allowed to serve when he obviously harbored extreme, anti-American views.
Text of the letter may be found here and below.
February 28, 2024
The Honorable Lloyd Austin
U.S. Department of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20301-1000
Dear Secretary Austin:
I am writing to you regarding an active-duty U.S. airman’s self-immolation outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. on February 25, 2024.
You have made it a top priority to address “extremism” amongst our total force, and this act of horrific violence—in support of a terrorist group—raises serious questions about how this individual was allowed to serve on active duty.
Please provide the following information no later than March 7, 2024:
- The Department has touted its efforts to address “ideological extremism” within its ranks. Was this airman ever identified as exhibiting extremist leanings?
- Did the Department’s anti-extremism training address support for Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas?
- Did the airman display any concerning behavior prior to this incident? If so, what was the behavior? What actions were taken to address that behavior?
- Has the Department determined if the airman had access to classified information? If he had access, did he take any actions that compromised U.S. national security prior to February 25?
- Did you find evidence of support for Islamic terrorist groups in your search for Department of Defense extremists? If so, how did you address that support?
- Have any other military members participated in anti-Israeli actions that violate Department of Defense policy on restricted political activities? If so, was this behavior appropriately addressed?
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
Tom Cotton
United States Senator
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