Radical Right Texan Allen West Headed to Anchorage

Former Texas GOP Chairman Allen West is headed to Anchorage on July 8, courtesy of the Alaska Republican Party.

West and two other Texas GOP officials took part in a Dallas conference at the end of May. The conference had ties to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. It is the same conference where former disgraced Trump administration official Michael Flynn advocated for a military coup on the U.S. government. Flynn walked back his own spoken words the next day, blaming the media for "twisted reporting."

Marketing for the conference included a logo highlighting a cowboy hat with the letters "WWG1WGA" around its band, a known QAnon motto.

While serving in Iraq, West was accused of using improper methods to force information out of an Iraqi detainee, and in 2003 following a military hearing, he was fined $5,000. West accepted the judgment and retired with full benefits as a lieutenant colonel in the summer of 2004. Had West been found guilty of the two original articles brought against him at a court-martial, West could have faced 11 years in prison.

In 2011, West urged President Obama to grant clemency to Jonathan Pollard — the only American ever to receive a life sentence for passing classified information to an ally of the U.S. Pollard pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel. He was sentenced to life in prison for violations of the Espionage Act.

West, who resigned as chair of the Texas Republican Party earlier this month, perhaps signaling a run for statewide office, falsely suggested in 2020 that Texas could secede from the United States and become an independent country.

West will be in Alaska for an event hosted by the Alaska Republican party on July 8.