Apr 14 2009
The Threat Of Far Right Extremism – Updated!
Latest Update: Reader Colin from DHS comments below. Key points by which he debunks the entire shrillness emanating from the right today:
The report is labeled “Rightwing Extremismâ€. It should not have been. It should not have been because it is not an accurate statement.Â
…
Now, as I mentioned, this is not the first report of this type to come out of DHS. Domestic terrorist assessments were released during the Bush Administration, as well. In fact, the publishing of assessments of this nature is a fairly regualr occurrance. DHS publishes these kind of reports every few months, publishes a regular border security report, publishes assessments of radical Islamist terrorist groups, and publishes alerts on terrorist methods. Most of those are not leaked, and if they are, people don’t care. However, with Obama around, many on the right (including, often, myself) are so horrified by what he’s doing and saying, that we are just looking for a reason to feel under attack. Frankly, Obama had nothing to do with this report. The people who authorized this intelligence assessment are the same people who were authorizing assessments under Bush.
See, no conspiracy. Classic bureaucratic clumsiness, typical leftward lean to the Feds, and possibly a way for the workers to stoke some interest from the new Democrat boss in their work (and funding requests). No Michelle, they are not out to get us!Â
BTW LGF linked to this post (thanks man) and there is a helluva good discussion going on there – end update
Final Addendum: I have been watching this brush fire grow and consume nearly everyone on the right side of the political spectrum. It is truly sad, because this is worse than the claims by the left under President Bush that the NSA was spying on Americans for political reasons. Now, the right is accusing the men and women of DHS of not protecting them from violent groups but of being a political Gestapo going after conservatives (because ‘conservative’ and ‘rightwing’ mean the same thing to some!).
In my book one better have irrefutable proof that DHS is (a) ignoring its responsibility to protect this nation and its people from attack and (b) performing political oppression against constitutionally protected political activities. These are serious charges to be throwing around like the folks on the right are doing today. They better have good evidence this is the case given the slander they are slinging at the good people at DHS.
I did not like it when the left did this to the good people at NSA protecting us, and I am not liking it now with the right making wild accusations against DHS.
Addendum: Folks, there is no mention of Tea Parties in the DHS report. Tea Parties are NOT conservative events, they are grass roots broadly supported events. If these turn into GOP only (purity, remember the drive for purity!) events they will die off. But the DHS is not targeting Tea Parties – for heaven’s sake! -end update
 A little reminder of what right wing extremist terrorism brought to this country
Drama Queen Updates At End
There is a lot of hemming and hawing on conservative blogs about a threat assessment out of the Homeland Security Department which discusses the threat of violent extremism from right wing groups. Somehow the bloggers, media heads, etc think this threat assessment is about them! A strange and egotistical conclusion to be sure.
There are groups who use violence against others who do not follow their beliefs. The history of this country is replete with examples (KKK, Skinheads, Weather Underground). These groups rationalize their violent and deadly actions by using good, reasonable causes as cover. They can and have corrupted good causes on the left and right with their poisonous hate. These are historical facts.
I am not concerned about Homeland Security generating a threat analysis on these people, and I do not take it personally because some of the causes the radicals use to rationalize their violent actions happen to be causes I believe in. I know I am not them and I know their use of violence cannot make a good cause a bad cause. Killing young humans is wrong, and killing people tied to abortion clinics does not change that basic moral value.
But some on the right are acting as if the Obama administration is putting out some PR hit on conservatives! Too many are fantasizing that there are dark, secret forces in the government working to keep liberals in power by arresting and harassing conservative people (who just happen to be violent). It is the strangest and silliest crock I have ever seen. Now I understand how all those conspiracy driven liberals assumed Bush and Cheney were behind 9-11 and were using the NSA to listening in on their mad hatter ranting!
Seems some on the right are now seeing black helicopters on their tin hat mind expanding devices.
First, lets look at some of the ‘offending’ passages. The title itself seems to set the stage for martyrs on the right.
Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment
This is one reason I don’t like the terms ‘rightwinger’ and ‘leftwinger’, though I have occasionally used them. We need terms to separate fringe ideology (e.g., ‘far right’ and ‘far left’) from extreme and radical ideology. I am at a loss for better words, but the way the internet slings around right and left winger I can see how some could have a fleeting initial reaction this is aimed at them. But that initial effect should disappear really quick once you read on and realize this is not aimed at Rush Limbaugh or John McCain, but at truly sick people.
The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific information that domestic rightwing* terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues. The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment.
— (U//LES) Threats from white supremacist and violent antigovernment groups during 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to carry out violent acts. Nevertheless, the consequences of a prolonged economic downturn—including real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability to obtain credit—could create a fertile recruiting environment for rightwing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past.
— (U//LES) Rightwing extremists have capitalized on the election of the first African American president, and are focusing their efforts to recruit new members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and appeal through propaganda, but they have not yet turned to attack planning.
This clearly indicates this is not about your conservative PAC or GOP neighborhood planning team. To claim otherwise is to actually support the threat this report is assessing. We cannot make these radical extremists part of normal society. We cannot defend them by pretending they are us. We cannot allow people like the Weather Underground (Bill Ayers, et al) to be an example of how to solve differences in our country. There is plenty of blood on the hands of the right and left in this country from times when we did not stop violence because it was done in the name of a cause we believed in. There are those who did not turn in the neighbor, friend or family member who went off the deep end and decided they would play God and decide who should live or die. We cannot allow this to happen again.
These radicals are preying on the anger and frustration of ‘true conservatives’ – and they are doing it by pretending to believe in their heart felt causes. That is why we see this in the report:
(U//FOUO) Rightwing extremists were concerned during the 1990s with the perception that illegal immigrants were taking away American jobs through their willingness to work at significantly lower wages. They also opposed free trade agreements, arguing that these arrangements resulted in Americans losing jobs to countries such as Mexico.Â
(U//FOUO) Over the past five years, various rightwing extremists, including militias and white supremacists, have adopted the immigration issue as a call to action, rallying point, and recruiting tool.
The report is clearly stating that heated anti-immigrant rhetoric is making people so angry it CAN drive them into the hands of violent radicals. It DOES NOT say that anyone opposed to immigration or illegal immigration is a rightwing extremists. To say otherwise is an outright lie.
(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists—including lone wolves or small terrorist cells—to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.
(U) After Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1990-1991, some returning military veterans—including Timothy McVeigh—joined or associated with rightwing extremist groups.
This paragraph DOES NOT say our war hero veterans are rightwing radicals. It says the emotional stress on our war hero veterans makes them vulnerable to being preyed upon by rightwing radicals. The concern is these heros are being manipulated and used to give the radicals training and weapons to attack this country. To say otherwise is an outright lie.
The fact is things happened during the Clinton years which were horrible and which stained the conservative movement just as Bill Ayers is a stain on the Vietnam anti-war movement. John Kerry may have invented lies about others to make his fame as an anti-war protestor, but he did not build bombs which killed people. While what Kerry did was despicable, it wasn’t extreme and radical like Ayers. We need to understand when lines are crossed, especially among our own ranks.
During the Clinton years there were murders and attempted murders of Americans in the name of “Pro-Life”:
In the U.S., violence directed toward abortion providers has killed at least 7 people, including 3 doctors, 2 clinic employees, a security guard, and a clinic escort.[4]
- March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn of Pensacola, Florida was fatally shot during a protest. He had been the subject of wanted-style posters distributed by Operation Rescue in the summer of the year before. Michael F. Griffin was found guilty of Dr. Gunn’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
- June 29, 1994: Dr. John Britton and James Barrett, a clinic escort, were both shot to death outside of another facility in Pensacola. Rev. Paul Jennings Hill was charged with the killings, received a death sentence, and was executed September 3, 2003.
- December 30, 1994: Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, were killed in two clinic attacks in Brookline, Massachusetts. John Salvi, who prior to his arrest was distributing pamphlets from Human Life International,[5] was arrested and confessed to the killings. He committed suicide in prison and guards found his body under his bed with a plastic garbage bag tied around his head. Salvi had also confessed to a non-lethal attack in Norfolk, Virginia days before the Brookline killings.
- January 29, 1998: Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, was killed when his workplace was bombed. Eric Robert Rudolph, who was also responsible for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, was charged with the crime and received two life sentences as a result.
- October 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot to death at his home in Amherst, New York. His was the last in a series of similar shootings against providers inCanada and northern New York state which were all likely committed by James Kopp. Kopp was convicted of Dr. Slepian’s murder after finally being apprehended inFrance in 2001.
It is stunning how these incidents start with President Clinton’s election and end around the time of his impeachment. As noted in the report this was the period when Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people, many children going into day care, in Oklahoma City.Â
The Homeland Security report rightfully and accurately notes this horrible period in our history as an example of what is possible today. Recall, much of this violence and killing was while the GOP held Congress. It was not the GOP who called for this to happen, but it shows how these radicals can exploit someone’s frustration with American political policy (with some emotional issues thrown in I am sure) to create havoc, and leave good causes tainted and crippled. The fear of Clinton drove a lot of people into violence.
Anyone who is simply a conservative who believes liberal policies suck eggs and Reagan and Bush were on the right path do not have pretend the focus of this report is about them. I don’t. I cannot fathom why anyone else would. And if some liberal shows up who cannot tell the difference between Timothy McVeigh and President George Bush, that is a problem with their world view. Not mine, or the intent of this report. This report is meant to identify possible threats and stop the killing of innocent Americans.Â
Conservatives, the government is not out to get you, just as the NSA was not listening in on the left but was seriously tracking down terrorists. Get a grip people, this is getting embarrassing.
Update: Speaking of embarrassing, it seems Michelle Malkin has decided she resembles rightwing extremists who bomb buildings and murder Americans:
Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real
…
By contrast, the piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives.Â
What a frigging drama queen! She even notes that DHS has done reports like this on extreme left wing groups, but she cannot help seeing herself as the victim here! This is beyond embarrassing. Is she planning to recruit our war hero veterans and manipulate them into attacking America? Damn, the need for attention with that one is strong.
AJ, you are probably right about the definition of “domestic terrorism”. I was using the Patriot Act definition, and I thought it included “homegrown terrorists” (including those affiliated with Islamofascist groups) commiting violent acts within the US. If I am wrong on that definition….
then I give the arguement win on that aspect to you.
Drudge headline:
“right wing radicals”
from the story:
“right wing extremists”
But from the actual report:
“that domestic rightwing terrorists”
as I said before, the government won’t call Islamic jihadists ‘terrorists’ but they have no problem calling Americans terrorists.
CP
Hmm, interesting because after he returned from the US from living in Russia his work consisted mostly of handing out Cuban communist propaganda leaflets.
that’s a function you would expect of an agent infiltrating an organization.
I don’t think many people that have knowledge of the JFK assassination would deny Oswald’s intelligence role.
AJ:
I have been checking the other conservative sites and they are in full panic mode.
could you give me a couple examples. I’ve checked a few conservative sites and haven’t found any yet that seem to be even surprised. must not be the same sites you are checking.
Thanks.
Breaking: St. Louis News Links Tea Party Protesters to “Extremist” Group …Update: Confirmed- Story Is Crap
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/04/breaking-st-louis-news-accuses-tea.html
Ed Morrisey has a good post on this report, including some statements that are false and conclusions that aren’t supported.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/14/the-execrable-dhs-report-on-right-wing-extremism/
excerpt:
“In the first place, the “outsourcing of jobs†outrage didn’t get stoked by the Right. That outrage got fed by the Democrats in the last two elections, and it’s a feature of the same anti-globalization loons of the hard Left that continually disrupt G-20 summits as they violently did in London. Barack Obama himself stoked a fair share of it during the presidential campaign with his NAFTA Dance.”
Here’s the part of the report that concerns me because, quite frankly, it’s a very broad brush they’re painting with.
There are a whole lot of Conservatives that fall under that broad umbrella, myself included.
I truly have to wonder if those who are not concerned with this are really paying attention to what is going on in our country and how this sort of broad reaching directive could easily be used to affect anyone who presents an opposing viewpoint.
BGG,
Your response is why I called Malkin and others paranoid and delusional. Unless you are planning to be the next MCVeigh this report is not about you.
It is about how people can manipulate gullible, paranoid, delusional people into committing violent crimes.
Egads, can’t you even tell the difference between yourself and McVeigh?????
Are you going to get angry and attack the government over this?
Cut the puppet strings people.
Maybe we’re doing something right after all if the fringes on both sides think that the government is after them!
On the other hand, as a right winger and someone who has worked with the government on a variety of levels, the only thing I fear is government fear.
For the government to even write about the right wing militia groups is silly because the right wing militia groups are silly. Spend sometime with any of these well meaning gun groups and you’ll know exactly why I say this! They talk like John Wayne, but walk like the rest of us.
It’s easy for government fear to get out of hand and we should worry about it no matter who’s the target. The fact that a compassionate conservative started the process gives me little solace. I would be less concerned about these reports if they would talk about these fringe groups’ tactical strengths with a few “LOL’s” in parentheticals.
These boogie-man reports should be left to the Bloggers and not to governmental watch-men.
AJ,
The report uses a very broad brush.
No, I am not planning to be the next McVeigh and yes, I can tell the difference.
Must you talk down and be insulting to your readers?
The point you seem willing to dismiss is the fact that this report contains far reaching generalizations which, if the decision is ever made to apply them, will affect people far beyond the “next McVeigh.”
BGG,
The report only applies to future McVeighs, that is why saying otherwise is a lie, or a play for attention, or paranoia, or victimhood …
See, to conclude this is a conspiracy gives me no choice – it is crazy to think these things without proof.
Uh-oh! The American Legion is upset about the report also. I guess they are just a bunch of right wing conspiracy kooks also.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/14/american-legion-to-napolitano-apologize/
I think AJ’s post is great. I also have no problem with any of the posts I have read from conservative bloggers. I don’t have a problem with the debate about the report because it does bring up some valid questions.
Folks,
This ridiculous indignation can only lead to one result – and that is a green light to some nutjobs who will see this as a sign they will be vindicated as heros for the acts of violence they are planning.
The one thing the internet has not done is teach people that playing with the emotions of the mob is liking playing with nuclear fire. A lesson that should not be learned by having things blow up in our faces.
AJStrata
Speaking of far right nutjobs how come AJ hasn’t mentioned John McCain humiliating Sarah Palin on Jay Leno last night? Isn’t she the heroine of all these future McVeighs?
AJ,
I haven’t commented here in a while, but I may be able to add something on this topic.
I may have mentioned before that I work as an intelligence analyst. I work as part of a DHS program, and have regular contact with the intelligence folks as DHS I&A.
Frankly, this wasn’t a very good intelligence assessment. There was nothing very insightful in this assessment (that hasn’t been in dozens of other assessments, assessments published during the Bush Administration, mind you). Also, DHS I&A, like many components of the intelligence community, tends to have a liberal outlook overall. Some analysts are conservative, but most are either “non-ideological”, but accept the liberal spin on every issue discussed, or are liberal. There is nothing wrong with this, and it is a common occurance within the field of intelligence. However, when writing an assessment like this, they should have been careful to make sure their key assumptions were not bleeding through. I think they did bleed through, and here’s an example as to how.
The report is labeled “Rightwing Extremism”. It should not have been. It should not have been because it is not an accurate statement. Domestic terrorism is broken up into several areas: Race/Hate groups (neo-nazis, klan-type groups), Militia Groups, Soveriegn Citizen groups, animal rights extremists, environmental extremists, anti-abortion extremists, and anarchists. The “right-wing” groups are never called right-wing, they are usually referred to, using hyphens, as Race/Hate-Milita-SovCit. The “left-wing” groups are called “single-issue extremists”, and anti-abortion groups are included under this category. Using “rightwing” was sloppy. It should have been titled “domestic extremists”, and covered the other groups as well.
Now, as I mentioned, this is not the first report of this type to come out of DHS. Domestic terrorist assessments were released during the Bush Administration, as well. In fact, the publishing of assessments of this nature is a fairly regualr occurrance. DHS publishes these kind of reports every few months, publishes a regular border security report, publishes assessments of radical Islamist terrorist groups, and publishes alerts on terrorist methods. Most of those are not leaked, and if they are, people don’t care. However, with Obama around, many on the right (including, often, myself) are so horrified by what he’s doing and saying, that we are just looking for a reason to feel under attack. Frankly, Obama had nothing to do with this report. The people who authorized this intelligence assessment are the same people who were authorizing assessments under Bush.
Now, with Napolitano in office, these concerns will most likely increase. Napolitano, quite simply, is not as concerned with external threats as Chertoff was, at least in my opinion. Chertoff, like me, wanted to know what was going on every morning, afternoon, and night with al Qaeda and their affiliates in Pakistan, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, and how they might threaten the homeland. Napolitano seems to see herself more as a national police chief than as the senior counterterrorism officer in the government. That is a dangerous and short-sighted position to take. That’s the real travesty happening in the Obama DHS, and this intelligence assessment issue is distracting us from that fact.
Thanks
Colin,
No, thank you for providing clarity and insight. I am much more worried about the new top brass being asleep at the switch than this false victimhood schtick by the right.
Jules,
Did not watch Leno – in fact I rarely watch Leno. McCain looking foolish? Stop the presses! Palin is the future of the conservative movement – not McCain (looking stupid or otherwise).
AJ, to a degree, I have to agree with BGG on this one.
For a while, there is an effort on the left to not treat disagreements on issues like Gitmo as something reasonable people can disagree on, but instead to treat it as being criminal. Look at the way that people like Andrew Sullivan have clamored for trials of Bush Administration legal officials and people in the Bush’s DOD.
The reaction of the “tolerant” left to Proposition 8 is also instructive. Never mind that I have come to oppose gay marriage due to concerns about the effect it will have on religious freedom – they have decided that those who oppose them are bigots, and thus, it is acceptable for gay activists to target my church (never mind Ayers, ACORN’s funny voter registration, and other actions on the left).
We saw no real reports of this nature aimed at the left during the Bush Administration, despite the clear actions above. Nothing at all to imply that Keith Olbermann or Randi Rhodes were inciting their followers. Or that anti-war protestors were going to do anything violent. There was some discussion of ecoterrorism, but not with the broad strokes of this report.
AJ, I’m not saying they are out to get me, but I do want some straight answers about the Obama Administration’s attitude towards me. Because, let’s be honest… Obama’s supporters WERE the Kos-types on the hard left of the Democratic Party.
Harold:
“We saw no real reports of this nature aimed at the left during the Bush Administration, despite the clear actions above. […]
I’m not saying they are out to get me, but I do want some straight answers about the Obama Administration’s attitude towards me.”
I assume the fact that this report was put together during the Bush Administration, and that Obama HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, is somewhat irrelevant to you?
AJ:
Sincere thanks to you (and LGF) for being a voice of reason out here in the wilderness. I wasn’t alive during the 60’s, so I missed the true lefty crazies like Ayers, etc. I can only imagine what it’s like to watch an entire political party lose their freaking minds in just 3 short months.
If you want to get an idea of what conservatives are apprehensive of, look at this entry. You’re constantly blending in the far right extremists with solid conservatives. At one point you say: “But some on the right are acting as if the Obama administration is putting out some PR hit on conservatives!”
But a little later, you announce:
“Recall, much of this violence and killing was while the GOP held Congress. It was not the GOP who called for this to happen, but it shows how these radicals can exploit someone’s frustration with American political policy (with some emotional issues thrown in I am sure) to create havoc, and leave good causes tainted and crippled. The fear of Clinton drove a lot of people into violence.”
A lot? Really? You name 7 — 5 of them involving abortion clinic violence, which has nothing to do with conservatism, mainstream or otherwise (unless, of course, you think anti-smoking, animal-loving vegetarians are Nazi’s, because Hitler was all those things), leaving McVeigh and Nichols.
I don’t know much about Nichols, but McVeigh was an atheist and an anarchist, not remotely conservative. Granted, conservatives are Federalist, but you may as well say that the Young Democrats are no better than the Khmer Rouge because they both want government involvement in medical care.
Furthermore, it wasn’t some amorphous “fear” of Clinton that he claimed to justify his actions, but Waco and that attack on that family in Idaho, I think. People who love to kill, love to kill, regardless of their justification.
Clinton, however, used Oklahoma City to save his career, and neither he nor the Democrats nor the mass media had any problem tying the Republicans, conservatives, Limbaugh, et al to “right wing extremism.”
I think it is very peculiar that you don’t even mention this, but then I’ve always thought you were around my age; perhaps you’re too young to remember.
No, I’m not, and neither are most conservatives, afraid of a police dragnet for anyone with a bottle of bourbon and a copy of the Federalist Papers, but, well, try this on for size, say about 2007:
“…that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting state or local authority in favor of a single centralized authority, or rejecting democratically-elected government altogether. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposing US foreign policy or being radically pro-environment.
“Many leftwing extremists were antagonistic toward the presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, innovations in social programs to minorities, and preserving the rights of citizens for firearm ownership and use.
“It is not uncommon for leftwingers to display Green Party, Campaign for a free Iraq, or ANSWER material. These members are usually supporters of former presidential candidates Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean.â€