The Politicization of the Department of Homeland Security

The American Thinker ^ | April 15, 2009 | Lee Cary

[Scanian]

The recently released Department of Homeland Security assessment of rightwing extremism represents an alarming politicization of that huge federal agency.

The 10-pages document is entitled: "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." Its source is the Extremism and Radicalization Branch of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis Assessment, of the Department of Homeland Security. (Imagine the size of their security badges.) Read it here.

American Thinker Jim Byrd's article entitled "Is Texas A Terror State?" provides a catalogue of transgressions that cumulatively define rightwing extremism. Byrd concludes that, when measured against Governor Rick Perry and Texas, the Lone Star State is solidly in the rightwing extremism column. (Excluding Kinky Friedman, of course.)

American Thinker Lance Fairchok's article entitled "DHS, 'Rightwing Extremism' and Information Warfare" places the DHS document in the context of information warfare.

Next, let's crawl into the weeds of this "amateurish" (Fairchok's accurate assessment) intelligence analysis, and examine its literary style.

First, its language is replete with vague and unsubstantiated hypothetical statements. Here are just seven examples.

1. "may" - "It is unclear if either bill [concerning mandatory firearm registration, and tagging and registration of ammunition] will be passed into law; nonetheless, a correlation may exist between the potential passage of gun control legislation and increased hoarding of ammunition..." (p. 6) (Or, folks are just frightened.)

[chuck_the_tv_out]

“politicization” in 10 weeks?

that’s got to be a record.

[Dallas59]

I wonder when the closing down of Churches begin? That’s where some of these “radicals” meet you know....

[angkor]

This “report” is a hack rewrite of hysterical Southern Poverty Law Center materials, including this specific opening paragraph from a SPLC web page, which was referenced and included in the report without quotations or attributio. IMO that indicates that the hack author was ashamed to reveal the disreputable and even laughable sources for this sham “report”.

From the SPLC Web site:

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?site_area=1&aid=197

Under pressure to meet wartime manpower goals, the U.S. military has relaxed standards designed to weed out racist extremists. Large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the armed forces.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

So now we’re back to profiling the “angry white guy” same as the Clinton administration did after the OKC bombing. We all saw how well that worked out on 9/11. They’re taking a big mortgage on our future with this way of “thinking.”

[Rome2000]

Large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the armed forces.

I guess if it was a bunch of black communists and muslims "learning the art of warfare in the armed forces" instead things would be hunky dory.

[SpaceBar]

If what you say is correct about the report being virtually identical to a Southern Poverty Law Center document, then Michael Savage’s hunch may be correct that the author is one Mark Potok, a leftwing lawyer with that outfit.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Judge Andrew Napolitano believes that this report is just an executive summary of a much larger, still classified report that is even worse.

Six Things You Should Know About the Homeland Security Report on ‘Rightwing Extremism’

[Think free or die]

I haven’t said anything to my sons yet, because they and my husband already think I’m “over the top with this stuff”. I’m concerned that the boys get moving on their Eagle Scout projects and earn their ranks before Bam decides to ban scouting outright or make it so politically isolated that good sheep will be afraid to support it.

[angkor]

I’m saying that the tone is similar to SPLC materials. and that there is at least one demonstrable instance of a paragraph lifted directly from the previously cited web page and being used in the report without attribution or quotation marks.

[Dallas59]

Well....Obuma would consider the Scouts a "right wing para military" outfit.
....and I'm not being sarcastic as usual.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

"skinheads"

do they still exist? I'm sure there are more leftard skinheads than any other brand.

remember this?:



I said at the time I was 100% certain that's a leftist setting up a premise, that the person would NOT receive any prison time.

Anyone know of any follow-up to that story?

[Enterprise]

The DHS “assessment” is intellectual squalor.

[FreedomPoster]

I don’t remember that. What is the outline of that story?

[angkor]

>>> The DHS “assessment” is intellectual squalor. <<<<<<

It is definitely sophomoric crapola.

[Mike Darancette]

“may”, “potential” and “could” make this read like an IPCC report on global warming.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

October surprise. “Nazi skinheads planning to kill Obama” premise in run up to election.

I guarantee that’s a leftist free as a bird right now.

[cubsfanconswoman]

I’m trying to figure out what ist the threats McCain received are. Every presidential candidate has received threats.

McCain’s office in Chicago was vandalized more than once by the Chicago thuggery machine.

[mathluv]

Peter Johnson is now on F&F - he says she should apologize or resign today!

[cubsfanconswoman]

What’s sad is black kids are being lied to about how racist scouting is when scouting could be so great for the young ones especially those without fathers in their lives. My coworker who grew up in the Chicago projects said his life was saved by joining the Scouts and considers his scoutmaster to be his Dad. He was a man in his 30s never married who started the troop where he grew up. My coworkers oldest is named after him and his kids call him Grandpa Pete.

[Psalm 73]

"That’s where some of these “radicals” meet you know...."

Hmmm, gun-owning, Christian Homeschooler who supports Crisis Pregnancy Centers - by golly, I am a very dangerous man!!!
(Psst - don't worry about those Islamic terrorists slipping through our southern border - just round up the real terrorists holing up in Evangelical-type churches).

[Just mythoughts]

So now we’re back to profiling the “angry white guy” same as the Clinton administration did after the OKC bombing. We all saw how well that worked out on 9/11. They’re taking a big mortgage on our future with this way of “thinking.”

I have not been convinced that OKC was a leftist fuse allowed to go off for the sole purpose of demonizing anybody that believes this nation is a Constitutional Republic. Personally I know of no one that would participate or condone anything like OKC. Yet the Clintons attempted to smear me because of where my radio dial might be on any given weekday.

And the speed with which this announcement has been made regarding 'evil' racist white people tells me this agenda never went away just went underground, still collecting 'data' over the past 8 years. What was that data collection called 'able danger'? Why was it called 'able'? Sure brings to my mind the mind of that one feigned he was not his brother's keeper.

I consider this smear a grand overreaching on these liberals part considering who all Bama and his magic money men hung out with over these past many years? I have to wonder exactly where Ayers and his gang fit in this security warning? Anyone think they can convince me $ORO$ is interested in protecting a Constitutional Republic?

[mathluv]

Evidently, a terrorist is anyone who does not support the o. That would not include any kind of muslims.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

I believe a request to his “campaign” for info would be met with silence

[razorback-bert]

I guessed that the unnamed civil rights organization was the SLPC, when I read the NYP’s story on another thread.

Thanks for the link.

[gussiefinknottle]

should be napoliticization,

[DainBramage]

This is the same bunch that cant warn about swarthy looking middle eastern males, but can warm about soldiers and christians. Hmmmm

[Mrs. B.S. Roberts]

As a mom of an Eagle Scout, I applaud your support of your Scouts. Working toward his Eagle Award my son learned so much about life, not just scouting. It is such a fantastic program - The Boy Scouts of America. I pray it continues for all boys in the future. We must continue to support it.

[wolfcreek]

Hate to say it but, I believe the Patriot Act politicized DHS.

[angkor]

I made a mistake, the text from SPLC was placed within quotation marks in the DHS report, but as mentioned previously was strangely attributed to “a prominent civil rights organization.”

DHS Report, page 7:

http://michellemalkin.cachefly.net/michellemalkin.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/hsa-rightwing-extremism-09-04-07.pdf

— (U) A prominent civil rights organization reported in 2006 that “large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads, and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the [U.S.] armed forces.”

Southern Poverty Law Center web site

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?site_area=1&aid=197

“Under pressure to meet wartime manpower goals, the U.S. military has relaxed standards designed to weed out racist extremists. Large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the armed forces.”

[stockpirate]

Sorry everyone and this goes to you vets, but the report is accurate concerning vets.

Before flaming me browse my home page and see what VVAW was up to during the Viet-Nam war.

IMHO vets returning from the WOT are great patriots and IF this fascism continues I would hope they stand up for the US Constitution.

[Lucky Dog]

Sorry everyone and this goes to you vets, but the report is accurate concerning vets.

You, sir, are greatly and gravely in error. You have made a broad judgment and sweeping statement on the basis of an incredibly small number of “bad apples.” Had you inserted modifiers such as some or a small number of in front of “vets” in your statement, then you would have been correct. As it is, you owe an apology the veteran community at large, including my uncles, my sister, my brothers-in-law, my nephew, my son and me, personally.

Veterans are ordinary citizens who volunteered to serve their country. If it was unknown to them before they entered service, they were taught the meaning of discipline, teamwork, leadership, organization, esprit de corps and, by the way, how to handle weapons (they already knew the meaning of duty and patriotism). For the most part, these people are a cross-section of the best in our society.

Unfortunately, any cross section of our society is going to contain some bad apples. Consequently, a few slip by the military entrance screening and training regimes as is evidenced by the fact that we still have to have a limited number courts-martial and less than honorable discharges. A very, very few bad apples even “scrape” through a complete term of service to an honorable discharge as is demonstrated by a few rather infamous, current politicians.

However, the exceedingly, overwhelming number of veterans have demonstrated outstanding character through their willingness to sacrifice comfort, wealth, some freedom and, even, their lives during their service. Furthermore, all but a miniscule number of these veterans continue to demonstrate that character after they leave the service. They are the core of our citizenry, still setting the example of placing duty, honor and country before self and striving for excellence and integrity.

For a Presidential Cabinet Secretary to authorize and, then, approve of a report disparaging veterans without any facts or foundation, goes beyond the definition an outrage. Such an act represents not only dishonor to the office she holds but to the man who appointed her and disgrace to the members of the Senate who voted for her confirmation. Moreover, rather than humble and abject apology, her defense on national television of the report, and her approval action thereof, is a disgusting shame heaped upon the disgraceful and dishonorable action she has already perpetrated.

[stockpirate]

Yes I should have inserted modifiers.

But that being said, as you stated our vets are pro America.

At some point many may be called upon to defend our country against the fascism sweeping our country. Will most vets do nothing?

I hope not.

[stockpirate]

This may help:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2230537/posts

I didn’t mean all vets.

[Lucky Dog]

I found the following excerpt most helpful.

From the thread you referenced:

As it turned out, most of VVAW, with the exception of John Kerry, were NOT war veterans. They were pretenders and wanna-bes, fabricating their military records.

7 posted on April 16, 2009 8:41:16 AM CDT by Raster Man

I didn’t mean all vets.

Additionally, while I noted that you acknowledged your error, I also noted that there seemed to be no expression of regret for offense caused by the earlier insult to the veteran community at large.

That approach seems to parallel that of a certain Cabinet Secretary. You may not wish to be thought of as being in the same intellectual communal company.

Use of the word, "Sorry," in front of your sentence: I didn’t mean all vets. would have be appropriate to remedy that condition.

[stockpirate]

Sorry, didn’t mean all vets. I hold members of that group in very high regard.

The quote you used is in fact wrong, most members of the VVAW were in fact vets, only a couple were not and couple had not served in Nam. Also the number of members was a couple of thousand not tens of thousands.

Do you think if our current problems degrade into a popular revolution against our ruling elite that our vets would defend our constitution or aid the ruling elites?

[Lucky Dog]

Apology accepted.

Reference the number of VVAW members: The US literally had multiple millions of veterans with service in the Southeast Asian theater (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, the surrounding waters and airspace, etc.).

A few thousand who wound up in VVAW is still an incredibly small percentage. Additionally, to the credit of the poster cited from the previous thread you referenced, there were, in fact, a, not insignificant, number of posers and wannabe's (liars) in that group. This fact speaks directly to the legitimacy, or, more importantly, lack thereof, of the entire group.

Beyond these facts is the basic dishonesty of the media in reporting on this group and other like it contemporaneously, as well as these groups' own perfidy in creating revisionist history. The media, in no small part, continues to the this day to misrepresent and dissemble concerning the members of VVAW. (Witness the reporting on JFKerry.) Consequently, citing it as a potentially valid indictment against veterans in general is questionable, at best.

Reference your last question; Do you think if our current problems degrade into a popular revolution against our ruling elite that our vets would defend our constitution or aid the ruling elites?

I think most veterans would stand by the Constitution as that was their sacred oath. The more pertinent question is whether they would be able to correctly discern the need to do so in a timely fashion given the dominance of the propagandistic mainstream media.

Another important question that must be addressed is whether or not the correct interpretation of that oath and the Constitution to which it is sworn allows a veteran to stand against duly and legally elected civilian authorities. IMHO such would not be the case unless, and until, these civilian authorities are charged with, and convicted of, treason or other high crimes.

[stockpirate]

The number of non vets in the VVAW was small compared to it’s total numbers. I only recall two or three that were later proved to be fakes. And ye, 2,500 was a small number compared to the millions who have served. But the media always misleads the American public.

Pray for our Republic.

[Lucky Dog]

Pray for our Republic.

Our Republic is, in deed, in need of requests for Divine intervention.

It is also in need of citizens who care enough to educate themselves on our form of government, its founding documents, the intent of our founders, and real history. Our citizens must inform themselves beyond cursory pundit "talking points" on the issues and facts confronting our nation. Now is time to look beyond "liberalism," "conservatism," and "populism" to true patriotism.

We live in a representative republic. It is time to use our voices and ballots make our representatives truly reflect our values within the guidelines and limitations of our Constitution.