On April 7, when President Barack Obama was winding up an overseas tour that included bowing to Saudi King Abdullah and expressing mea culpas for America’s past sins, his Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was unleashing the dogs of war against his political opposition at home: Americans alarmed by his radical policies on gun control, abortion, illegal aliens, nationalizing the economy, and more. A secret 10-page DHS document sent to law-enforcement agencies nationwide is stirring up a political firestorm. Entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” the DHS report (pdf), dated April 7, sloppily (or cleverly and maliciously) demonizes millions of law-abiding Americans, conflating them with violent, criminal groups such as Neo-Nazis and “white supremacists” simply because they adhere to political beliefs at variance with those of the administration.

The report employs the word “rightwing” 50 times, and in nearly every instance (47 times) it is in the context of “rightwing extremism,” “rightwing extremist,” “rightwing terrorist,” or “rightwing terrorist and extremist.” Tellingly, the report doesn’t bother to define any of these politically charged terms, a major dereliction of due diligence in such an important matter. It is similarly shoddy in using terms favored by left-wing extremists to describe their opponents on the right, such as “antigovernment,” “hate-oriented,” “paranoid,” “dangerous,” and “violent.”

The closest the DHS report comes to offering a definition is this troubling description:

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

Veterans, Democrats, Republicans Rip DHS Report
The federal report has drawn the ire of conservatives, the American Legion, and both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. “The fact the report singles out issues like abortion and immigration shows it was put together from a left-wing political perspective in order to vilify mainstream conservatism by lumping those values into the same category as neo-nazis and terrorists,” charged Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). “This is a dangerous road to travel,” he continued. “The last time a liberal left administration tried to increase public apprehension about alleged right wing extremism, they ended up with tragedies like Waco while ignoring the increasing presence of radical Islamic terrorists on American soil that ended up with 9-11.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, shares those concerns. In an April 14 letter (pdf) to Obama’s DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, he wrote he was “dumbfounded” by the contents of the report. “I am disappointed and surprised that the department would allow this report to be disseminated" to law-enforcement agencies, he said.

“This report appears to raise significant issues involving the privacy and civil liberties of many Americans — including war veterans,” Thompson cautioned. "As I am certain you agree, freedom of association and freedom of speech are guaranteed to all Americans — whether a person's beliefs, whatever their political orientation, are 'extremist' or not."

David K. Rehbein, national commander of the American Legion, has also expressed the concern of his 2.6 million-member organization over the negative stereotype of veterans in the DHS “Rightwing Extremism” report. In a letter to Secretary Napolitano, Commander Rehbein wrote:

The American Legion is well aware and horrified at the pain inflicted during the Oklahoma City bombing, but Timothy McVeigh was only one of more than 42 million veterans who have worn this nation's uniform during wartime. To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical "disgruntled military veteran" is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam.

The American Legion commander also took issue with the DHS report on other points. He wrote:

Your report states that "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." Secretary Napolitano, this is more than a perception to those who have lost their job. Would you categorize union members as "Right Wing extremists"?

Secretary Napolitano responded to these and other concerns with a statement issued through the DHS press office on April 15. “We are on the lookout for criminal and terrorist activity but we do not — nor will we ever — monitor ideology or political beliefs,” Napolitano said. “We take seriously our responsibility to protect the civil rights and liberties of the American people, including subjecting our activities to rigorous oversight from numerous internal and external sources.”

Secretary Napolitano’s assurances will likely do little to ease concerns; the DHS report adds to a pattern of recently released documents that seem to show a concerted campaign, directed through federal-state-local “fusion centers,” to vilify and criminalize the Obama administration’s opposition.

Missouri Militia Report Continues to Cause Political Waves
Public outcry over a similarly controversial political profiling report by a federal-state “fusion center” under the aegis of the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) continues to reverberate through the Show Me State. The report, entitled “The Modern Militia Movement” (pdf), lists a number of violent activities attributed to “right wing” militia groups and then posits “mind set” links between them and legitimate, law-abiding groups, political parties, and political candidates. The report, which was disseminated to law enforcement, specifically names Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), who ran for president in the 2008 Republican Party primaries, and Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin, presidential candidates, respectively, for the Libertarian and Constitution parties. (See “Profiling and Criminalizing Political Dissent”).

The report states: “Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups. It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty, or Libertarian material.” On March 29, Campaign for Liberty staff member Steve Bierfeldt was stopped and subjected to harassing search and questioning by law enforcement at the St. Louis airport after the conclusion of the group’s conference, at which Rep. Ron Paul was the keynote speaker. The intimidation session was recorded on Bierfeldt’s iPhone and has subsequently become an Internet sensation.

Van Godsey, the director of the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC), the fusion center that produced the report, was replaced on April 6. His superior, Department of Public Safety Director John Britt, has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of the report. However, Missouri State Rep. Jim Guest is planning his own investigation. He informed The New American on April 8 that he will be convening hearings into the matter in the Real ID and Personal Privacy Committee shortly after the Easter recess.

See also: "Do You Fit the Terrorist Profile?"

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Bondsman said:

They paint with wide brush. I am a vet and gun owner and I find it interesting that the government can and does paint with such a wide brush those that do not agree with them. The fact that the second amendment helps grantee he rest of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution also is not lost on them. Why else would the Government want registration except for confiscation? Then to take away the rest of our when they wish. You may say that I do not trust the government but trust must be earned and it can be lost and they both depend on the actions they take.

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April 16, 2009
Votes: +12

Flu-Bird said:

	Terrorists all The strange thing is OBAMA surrounds himself with a bunch of radicals himself including his ownATTORNY GENNERAL and theres even a former BLACK PANTHER in the demacrat party who wants to inact gun control laws and a animal rights extremists as his secratary of education(brainwashing)and many of obams freinds are terrorists
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April 16, 2009
Votes: +10

Jenny said:

Napolitano is dangerously unstable, and unsuitable for DHS secretary, she needs to be replaced The report she issued is a deliberate attack against our civil liberties, and is the result of either a dangerously unstable personality, or a fascist, who seeks to exploit power to undermine the rights and freedoms of American citizens, especially those who Napolitano looks down upon and considers an impediment to her ideology. The Obama administration needs to fire her, and replace her with someone who is capable of handling the position, who respects the US Constitution and the rights of the American citizenry.

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April 17, 2009
Votes: +8

Donna said:

... I agree, this woman is so busy pushing her own agenda. Someone who is that biased should not be in that posistion of authority. What better way to get your views passed than to eliminate the opposistion. During Presidential campaign I said Obama would take us down from the inside. I tried to give him the benifit of the doubt but with his appointments and plans I still say my initial assesment was correct. In the end it will be very hard for someone who has conservative values to live proudly in this country. I myself will stick to my values even if it means a beheading in the long run.

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April 17, 2009
Votes: +5

Thomas Paine said:

	The Puppet Government All puppets. Don't accept any new military draft and don't believe any new terrorist attack. The NWO is clearly taking over using the war on terror as a means to shut down society. I will not allow any of my family to be drafted by a criminal government. Until all facts about 911 are investigated, we don't have to accept orders from an illegitamate government.
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April 17, 2009
Votes: +7

Scott Snyder said:

	... The role of government is to protect our rights as citizens not remove them. When it gets too big for it's britches it is time to replace it. www.strategicbookpublishing.com/TheGH4Effect.html
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April 17, 2009 | url
Votes: +3

Joseph Watson said:

It is HERE Back in 1995 a woman named Carol Moore wrote a book entitled, The Davidian Massacre, available here: http://www.carolmoore.net./waco/TDM-index.html In Chapter 1.Why the BATF and the FBI Massacred the Branch Davidians there is a section titled: IS AMERICA BECOMING A POLICE STATE? And another: Government's Dangerous Paranoia This chapter can be read here: http://www.carolmoore.net./waco/TDM-01.html After reading it one must come to the conclusion that Ms Moore was prophetic. God help us! May the New American reach out to millions more Americans. The TRUTH must be told!

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April 18, 2009 | url
Votes: +3

Lynn said:

	Read her lips: No Apology She never apologized for the report or anything anybody said or inferred. She is following the adminispeak. We need to keep on this until she is replaced. How can I be an earth muffin one day and a right winged terrorists the next?
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April 18, 2009
Votes: +3

CLARENCE LEE CLINE said:

... JUST SHOWS TO GO YOU. THE RIGHTIOUS HAVE NO NEED TO LIE DELIBERATELY. THIS WHOLE ADMINISTRATION IS FULL OF LIARS WITH ABSOLUTELY NO TRUTH IN THEM. AS YOU CAN SEE I ALSO AM A "RIGHT WING RADICAL" AND A POTENTIAL TERRORIST. BULL s**t! I AM A 74 YEAR OLD KOREAN VET WHO LOVES MY COUNTRY. I AM SICK BECAUSE OUR CHILDREN HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS SINCE AT LEAST THE 50'S AND DID NOT REALIZE IT UNTIL FAIRLY RECENTLY. THIS BY THE SAME PEOPLE WHO ARE NOW IN CHARGE. I DO NOT WISH FOR CIVIL WAR. THE COUNTRY I LOVE WILL SUFFER SO MUCH. HOWEVER IF IT EVER COMES TO THAT, I MAY BE UNABLE TO SHOULDER MY GUN BUT I WILL FIRE IT FROM THE HIP AND I WILL DIE. LIKE JOHN WILKS BOOTH SAID "DEATH TO TYRANTS" AND HE DID IT RIGHTIOUSLY. THE CIVIL WAR WAS NOT FOUGHT OVER SLAVERY. IT WAS FOUGHT OVER STATES RIGHTS IN VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF LINCOLN. THE TRUTH DIFFERS FROM WHAT WE HAVE BEEN TAUGHT DOES IT NOT?

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April 18, 2009
Votes: +2

Miguel said:

Just another indicator... This "memo" was just another indicator of the true feelings of the Obama Administration toward the average American. They dispise us and consider dissent a threat. They are bigots who label those they don't like with slurs in an effort to marginalize them. As for Obama's transparency, just try to find out WHO authored the document. You'll find out that what Obama means by transparent is that a ghost wrote it.

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April 19, 2009
Votes: +0

Joe S said:

A Paranoid Government Having just read the DHS report, it's clear that any one of the Founders would today be counted a "right-wing extremist" for fearing an all-powerful Federal government or supporting a sovereign United States. The DHS report is Orwellian in nature and reminiscent of totalitarian rhetoric in using lone examples to indicate supposedly widely-held anti-Semitic, anti-government sentiments. We should all question our congressmen and senators where they stand on this report.

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April 21, 2009
Votes: +1

JoeSwiss said:

	NDT, sign me up Please where can I sign myself up as an NDT (a Napolitano domestic terrorist). If we all of us millions voluntarily sign ourselves up on their domestic terrorists list, this will make the job easier and maybe save some of our taxpayer dollars. JoeSwiss, NDT
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April 23, 2009
Votes: +0

Irishcopper said:

... DHS Secretary Napolitano is clueless and an embarrassment to Federal law enforcement. The vast majority of the grunts that work for DHS in the U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Coast Guard, TSA, etc. are military and law enforcement veterans that don't subscribe to she and Commissar Pelosi's philosophy of "bring us your unwashed masses mentality" regarding welcoming illegal aliens to our Nation. They are patriots that do a job that most normal people wouldn't do in a most honorable manner. The comments that the Secretary made were disgraceful and the President should have called for her resignation. Unfortunately, BHO agrees with her.

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April 23, 2009
Votes: +1