True North

Do you believe that the United States is a nation of laws governed by the Constitution? Do you support states’ rights? Oppose abortion?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, the Department of Homeland Security might be keeping an eye on you as a potential “right-wing extremist” or “white supremacist” domestic terrorist.

A report titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” was published for internal use by the Department of Homeland Security on April 7^th. It cautions that though they have no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, “rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues.”

The 9-page document is eerily reminiscent of another recent law enforcement report produced by Missouri’s state highway patrol, "The Modern Militia Movement," that suggested supporters of third-party political candidates (singling out Ron Paul and Bob Barr as examples) should be scrutinized as potential militia-influenced terrorists.

The document contains a notice stating that no portion of the “Law Enforcement Sensitive” information contained therein should be released to the media, the general public, or over non-secure Internet servers. “Release of this information could adversely affect or jeopardize investigative activities,” the warning concludes. Despite that admonition, the document leaked to the public within minutes of its nationwide distribution and the Department of Homeland Security issued a retraction within 18 minutes of its release.

Political opposition to some of President Obama’s desired policy changes, and the new energy of conservative political activism and organization are now perceived as a potential violent threat, the report would indicate. For example, the report seems to suggest that opposition to illegal immigration equates to white supremacy and is symptomatic of “right-wing radicalization.”

“The historical election of an African American president and the prospect of policy changes are proving to be a driving force for rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalization,” it reads. The rise of the national “Tea Party” protest movement may be considered a part of this radicalization and recruitment. Joining policy-focused organizations like Minnesota Majority, the NRA or the Taxpayers League could also be construed in this way. 

The nebulous and unsubstantiated language used in parts of the report are cause for concern. It says, “most statements by right-wing extremists have been rhetorical,” “stopping short” of calls for violent action. The use of language in this way suggests that whatever unmentioned organizations they refer to were on the path toward calls for violence but for whatever reason pulled back from the brink at the last second. It goes on to mention “two instances in the run-up to the election, extremists appeared to be in the early planning stages of some threatening activity targeting the Democratic nominee,” without citing the cases, what law enforcement action was taken, who the alleged extremists were or what form the “threatening activity” would have taken. Throughout, the report refers to groups that speak out on issues that concern them as having the “potential to turn violent,” or “to incite violence” while providing no evidence to support such a vague and unexplained prediction.

Even though the federal government has instructed citizens to stock up on food and water and other supplies in case of an emergency, the DHS report links stockpiling food with anti-government conspiracy theorists, “end-times” prophecies and “the radicalization of domestic extremist individuals.”

The recent upswing in gun and ammunition sales also causes concern for the report’s authors, who refer to gun and ammunition stockpiling as militia activity.

Ordinary political operations by conservative groups and political parties, like recruitment or arguing an opposing point of view are singled out as radical extremist activity, evidently if they come from a point of view of “political prejudices” or opposition to President Obama’s agenda. The term “political prejudices” is a new one that merits some contemplation, as it’s used in the following paragraph from the DHS report.

“Many rightwing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use. Rightwing extremists are increasingly galvanized by these concerns and leverage them as drivers for recruitment. From the 2008 election timeframe to the present, rightwing extremists have capitalized on related racial and political prejudices in expanded propaganda campaigns, thereby reaching out to a wider audience of potential sympathizers.”

At more than one point in the report, opposition to illegal immigration is linked to racism, xenophobia or white supremacy. It is a document clearly written by people with a strong ideological bent of their own and unfortunately, this report was crafted by employees of the federal government, on government time for official government purposes and was bought and paid for by us, the US taxpayers. Certainly, the report was retracted once the public caught wind of it, but the unsettling fact remains that officials responsible for our national security produced this grossly misguided and politically charged document. Such a government document could not have seen the light of day without supervisory and editorial review, so it can not be said that the document was simply the product of one poor misguided soul at DHS. At a minimum, several individuals who work closely together in the department are jointly responsible. The DHS employees who produced, edited, fact-checked and authorized this irresponsible and downright frightening official and confidential document appear to be the actual radicals and perhaps their employment status should come under scrutiny.

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Cross-posted at Minnesota Majority. Comments welcome.

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