June 10, 2009 4:38 PM

Right Wing Extremism: Alive And Well

By
Charles Cooper
Topics
In The News
(AP)
At this point it's little consolation, but Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano turned out to be more prescient about domestic extremism than many of her critics.

In April, she got an earful from conservative bloggers and radio pundits after DHS issued a nine-page report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," which warned of the potential for violence from rightwing fringe groups.

In part, the critics' distemper was connected to language which they said unfairly singled out returning veterans and conservatives. Here's what the report said:

"Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A (Office of Intelligence and Analysis) is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities."

Napolitano soon backtracked from that particular paragraph and sought to defuse the mini-controversy by making the larger point that department's job is to monitor the risks of domestic violent extremism.

"We don't have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence," she said.

But in the last month, the nation has been rocked by two instances of violence committed by suspects linked to the sorts of extremist movements to which the report pointed.

Scott Roeder, the man being held in custody for the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller, was a member of the anti-government group, the Montana Freemen, according to an interview his father granted to the Topeka Capital-Journal after the arrest.

And on Wednesday, Stephen Tyrone Johns, who worked as a guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., died after James von Brunn, an 88-year-old white supremacist and military veteran, reportedly opened fire. Police are questioning von Brunn, and his motivations are yet unclear. But on his Web site, van Brunn touts a book he wrote as "a new hard hitting expose of the JEW CONSPIRACY to destroy the White gene-pool."
Guard Killed In Holocaust Museum Shooting
Shooting Suspect Wrote Of "Holocaust Hoax"
Shooting Highlights Growth Of Hate Groups
Blog: Napolitano Prescient on Extremism
Photos: D.C. Museum Shooting
Connecting the dots is guaranteed to be a contentious, if not fraught exercise. But as the news filtered out, some liberal bloggers did not hesitate to draw conclusions.

The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen put it this way:

"The Republican hysteria over the DHS report -- which was, by the way, initiated by a Bush administration official -- was always based more on a partisan scheme than reality, but the incessant complaints look especially misguided today," he wrote.

For Matthew Yglesias, the grisly aftermath of the Tiller and Holocaust Museum shootings left little ambiguity about where to look.

"I hope that everyone who mau-maued the Department of Homeland Security for expressing concern about this kind of thing feel appropriately ashamed of themselves," wrote Yglesias.

  • Charles Cooper is an executive editor at CNET News. He has covered technology and business for more than 25 years, working at CBSNews.com, the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. E-mail Charlie.

Add a Comment See all 108 Comments
by marleymae June 16, 2009 10:06 PM EDT
Based on the posts I have seen here, the main purpose of this article was to incite Liberals to lose their senses and make wild accusations about a group of people they don't even know. Well, you were successful.

What was the goal of the Author? Did you hope to start a big battle between Liberals and Consevatives? Or, did you hope to make a lot of money from your article? Or, maybe both? Whatever motive you had for writing this article, if one Liberal harms a Christian or Conservative or one Conservative harms a Liberal after having read your article. Their blood is on your hands. Sleep well.
Reply to this comment
by marleymae June 16, 2009 10:20 PM EDT
I can not believe the spelling and grammer in these posts and they are my posts!!!! Forgive please, I was incredibly tired and needed to be snoring in my bed. I am only apologizing for my illiteracy not my opinions.
by marleymae June 14, 2009 12:56 PM EDT
Posted by lloydbest1 at 4:54 PM : Jun 11, 2009

Lloyd, The thing that I noticed about your post was that you provided no verification that what you were saying is true.

I have been a Christian who adheres to the principles of Conservatism for years. I was active in my church and never missed an election. Not only have I never belonged to a right-wing extreme group, no one I have met has either. I have lived in Indiana, North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida and have never run into these "dangerous extremists" Wonder why, since you believe that they are all around us. Please provide all of us with a list of these groups that you have known personally. Please, educated me.

Who do you plan to start reindoctrinating? Obvious extreme groups who practice to overturn the Government? If you can't find them, who then? Will you silence people like Rush, Sean, Glenn, Ann and a multitude of others? Will you "silence" them in anyway necessary? How about everyone you catch in Church? Your associates have already started burning down Churches all over American and at lease one preacher had been shot to death while preaching in his Church. I am not saying that you belong to that brutal group but I want you to see how easy it is to make assumptions and take action based on nothing .

If a person believes in the rights laid out for them in the Constitution, that does not make them an extremist. If they love the Lord, that does not make them murderers. If they want smaller government and love their freedom, that does not make them wing-nuts, nut-jobs, trailer trash, hillbillies or red-necks.

Be sure that you know who you are going to silence. You need the proper validation that this group is indeed extremists (not your neighbors opinion.) And be sure that you don't let politions and the MSM talk you into doing something which you will surely regret and from which they (not you) will benefit.

You seem to be fairminded so if this post doesn't apply to you. I hope that it will be read by both left and right-wing extremists.
Reply to this comment
by marleymae June 13, 2009 3:59 PM EDT
Isn't one military tactic "divide and couquet"? Mr. O. does not want anyone questioning him. The Liberals have no qualms about destroying people who do not share their opinion. Kind of like Hitler and the Jews. Will that really happen? Yes as long as both parties believe in and feed off of the proposition that the right and left wings are ready to destroy each other.
Reply to this comment
by marleymae June 13, 2009 3:47 PM EDT
If I didn't know better, I would be thinking that the Liberals are setting up Conservatives and Christian for the next big clenzing. Their are getting the masses all riled up and ready to do whatever they need to do to get rid of us.

What you are doing is criminal and very dangerous. You are engaged in turning one group against another.

Let me point out that there is a contuim of Repub/Cons and Dems/Libs. On one end of the contimuim are Extreme Liberals, on the other end are extreme conservatives. In the middle are the millions of Dems and Cons (Republicans) and Independents who love being American, love their country, Mom and apple pie.
The extremes are talked about and written out as though they run the country, but that is not true. It does serve to Governments purpose to brainwash the Americans and the World that the Extremist have taken over. It is a very sick policy and very dangerous. Lets start thinking logically and let the propaganda go.
Reply to this comment
by lloydbest1 June 11, 2009 7:54 PM EDT
"Rightwing extremism is alive and well in America!" Emphasized in the title of this article and by cydygitt1 at 11:54 AM : Jun 11, 2009.

Right wing extremism is definitely alive and well. It is also growing at an alarming rate. It is no surprise, then, that the none-too-liberal Janet Napolitano is using her authority as head of DHS to attempt to get an assessment of how widespread and dangerous this faction is. If it turns out to be as bad as some of us contributing on this thread believe it already to be, then all those measures devised and implemented by the Bush Administration, including the "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" His Bushness issued in May of 2007 can be applied here. The Supreme court bought in on all of it and it is now begining to look like we may actually have a real justification to put these measures to use. I wouldn't think of applying something as constitutionally questionable and morally ambiguous as the National Security Directive under any other circumstances but it's long past time to shut these neo-Fascist maniacs down hard and permanently.
But before we go too far down that road, I have a little information to share:
We have a neighbor, lives three or four houses down the street from me. He's an electrician by trade and works hard and dilligently. Supports a wife and thre children. He is also superficially the exemplar of every right-wing nastiness you can think of and lots that you don't. Yet he is firm and fair with his children and has raised them very well. He is a passionate opponent of gay rights but when he caught some deliquent defacing a sign on my front yard that supported a ballot measure supoporting g@y marriage, he ripped the kid a new a--hole, made him replace the sign and demanded he apologize to me. He has a definite nineteenth century attitude towards people of color but when a black apprentice was harrassed by another white journeyman, he threatened to have the white-boy fired. If you are familiar with union shops then you know that is an all but impossible task - yet he was willing to try. The man is well meaning and patriotic - and I mean that in every possible positive connotation. We don't visit much but when we do we have a good time. In spite of his politics, I like the guy.
I mention all this to point out that with few exceptions the right-wing underbelly of America are not necessarily one dimensional cartoon villians. Many are - too many, and they need to be dealt with in the harshes possible terms. But we also need to avoid over generalizing. Recognize the threat many pose but taking an overly broad brush approach to the problem puts us in danger of being the very thing we hate about our rightist whacks.
Reply to this comment
by actornaught June 11, 2009 3:55 PM EDT
The constant idiot-rant chant by the neo-conned of "Socialism!" is comparable to a generic car parts store being picketed with chants of "Cadillac!"

Must be the fancy air freshener...
Reply to this comment
by actornaught June 11, 2009 3:24 PM EDT
...Liberals LOVE Sanger! Hitler got his eugenics ideas from Sanger...stay away from the colleges and universities...
Posted by gvmelibertyorgvmedeath at 11:24 AM : Jun 11, 2009

Guess i'm not a liberal after all, because i barely know who she was. She's dead, right? Anyway, just like your messiah rush, EVERY sentence you use with the word liberal is lie.

Second point, and i barely care about all the other weirdness in your posts, you anti-education fox/rush fans need to look yourselves alot harder, and stop listening to those loons.

After all, mr intelligent, i'm NAUGHT an Actor...
Reply to this comment
by cydygitt1 June 11, 2009 3:11 PM EDT
Question? If a white person disagrees with the political policies of .......

Posted by gvmelibertyorgvmedeath
-----------------------------------------

There's the convoluted "thinking" of a highly-partisan placater of rightwing extremism, since disagreeing with anyone over POLITICAL POLICIES has NOTHING to do with RACISM, only political ideology.

You would have learned that in polysci 101.
Reply to this comment
by cydygitt1 June 11, 2009 3:04 PM EDT
Educate yourself, but stay away from the colleges and universities if you want to get to the real truth and not be brainwashed.....

Posted by gvmelibertyorgvmedeath
--------------------------------------

More absolute PROOF of absurdity from an uneducated placater of rightwing extremism, railing against colleges and universities of higher learning.

I'm sure you'd advocate a solid diet of foxnewsus propagandus as well as conservitard talk radio of the likes of racists rush and savage to get your kind of "truth."

When a college professor gets you to THINK on your own for a change and not go along with group "think", it certainly isn't brainwashing as you wrongly stated, since there's many ways at looking at the same problem -- not just one.

Rightwing extremism is alive and well in America!
Reply to this comment
by cydygitt1 June 11, 2009 2:54 PM EDT
Your are right, I am confused.

Posted by gvmelibertyorgvmedeath
-------------------------------------------

No doubt, and your constant gibberish condoning rightwing extremism proves it!
Reply to this comment
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