DHS' Domestic Terror Warning Angers GOP

Republican Lawmakers, American Legion Call Reference To Susceptible Veterans Unacceptable, Unfair

(CBS/AP)  Republicans said Wednesday that a Homeland Security Department intelligence assessment unfairly characterizes military veterans as right-wing extremists.

The party's leader in the House of Representatives, Rep. John Boehner, described the report as offensive and demanded that the agency apologize to veterans.

The agency's intelligence assessment, sent to law enforcement officials last week, warns that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country's first black president to recruit members. (Click here for the full DHS report, in PDF form.)

The assessment also said that returning military veterans who have difficulties assimilating into their home communities could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or might engage in lone acts of violence.

"To characterize men and women returning home after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable," Boehner said.

David Rehbein, commander of The American Legion, a congressionally chartered veterans group that claims 2.6 million members, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano expressing concern with the assessment, which made its way into the mainstream press after conservative bloggers got wind of the analysis.

One such blogger, Michelle Malkin, called the report, "one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS."

Rehbein called the assessment incomplete and said it lacked statistical evidence. He said the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by military veteran Timothy McVeigh was one instance of a veteran becoming a domestic terrorist.

"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," Rehbein said in the April 13 letter.

Napolitano defended the assessment and others issued by the agency.

"Let me be very clear - we monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States," Napolitano said in a statement. "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."

Napolitano said the department respects and honors veterans and that she intends to meet with Rehbein next week after she returns from a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border and meetings in Mexico City.

Glen M. Gardner Jr., national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, disputed claims that Homeland Security analysts were describing veterans as terror threats.

"The report should have been worded differently, but it made no blanket accusation that every soldier was capable of being a traitor like Benedict Arnold, or every veteran could be a lone wolf, homegrown terrorist like Timothy McVeigh," said Gardner, a Marine veteran from Round Rock, Texas. "It was just an assessment about possibilities that could take place."

Homeland Security says the assessments are part of a series published "to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States."

In February, the department issued a report to law enforcers that said left-wing extremist groups were likely to use cyber attacks more often in the next 10 years to further their cause.

In September, the agency highlighted how right-wing extremists over the past five years have used the immigration debate as a recruiting tool.

Between September 2008 and Feb. 5, the agency issued at least four reports, obtained by The Associated Press, on individual extremist groups such as the Moors, Vinlanders Social Club, Volksfront and Hammerskin Nation.

But the references to military veterans in the recent report angered conservatives.

"The department is engaging in political and ideological profiling of people who fought to keep our country safe from terrorism, uphold our nation's immigration laws, and protect our constitutional right to keep and bear arms," said Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis.

Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, also a Republican, accused the department of painting "law-abiding Americans, including war veterans, as `extremists."'

Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer, the ranking Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said it was "inconceivable" that the administration would consider military veterans a potential terror threat.

The DHS assessment was made public on the same day that another report, from an organization that has tracked extremist groups for 40 years, found a 50 percent rise in the number of such groups since 2000 - to 926 today.

The Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report attributed the increase in part to the election of President Obama as the nation's first black president, and to a backlash against Latinos. Another factor: the weak economy.

[Sparrowhawk81]

People, people. I think it would do you ALL some good to try to read through this report. There's a link to it right there in the article. It's a PDF file and it's only 10 pages long. You can even search it to skip to the parts that talk specifically about veterans. As far as I can tell, the report does not "single out" veterans as right-wing extremists. The report merely acknowledges the fact that returning veterans often have a hard enough time as it is re-integrating into civilian life, and that there are violent right-wing groups out there that will try to EXPLOIT the veterans' vulnerability. They're not saying the veterans are dangerous, they're saying that the veterans could be taken advantage of by extremist groups. So, really, it's very ironic that many of you are lambasting this report as "singling out" veterans, when in reality it appears that this report is sticking up for them, saying they should be protected from right-wing extremist groups.

Honestly, at least try to think for yourselves before you just start listening to your elected officials unquestioningly when they tell you this report is offensive. If anyone has a political motivation in all this, it's them, not DHS. The report is 10 pages long, and it's actually very readable. So...you know, read it.

[ModerateLibby]

There's no such thing as an "AK-14". AK-47 maybe, AR-15 perhaps, even an M-14 (which is a full auto version of an M1A), but there's no such thing as an AK-14.

If people were against this when one President was in, why are they now happy "the other side" is getting it? That's like saying it's OK if someone rapes and murders my neighbor, as long as they leave ME alone. If you felt it was wrong then, then you should feel it's wrong now. The rules should apply equally. Otherwise, whatever we each stand for doesn't really hold much credibility.

While I feel their comment on Vets will come back to haunt them, it's their choice who to target. Their decision to not include Left Wing groups like PETA and Greenpeace in this report (in my opinion) makes them look like they're just trying to cause trouble for their political opponents.

[Cxa44]

Cracks me up. The GOP is always the one that screams "Surveillance of Americans is OK. If you have nothing to hide then you should not care." Then, when the nutjob extremist terrorists on the RIGHT are the ones who need to be watched they whine like little babies. F'em.They have reaped what they have sown. Time for the CIA and the NSA that GOP/Bushie let loose to shove their cameras up the GOP right wing nutjob CHRISTIAN TALIBAN azz. ROFLMAO. People never learn.
Posted by DefendLiberty at 10:43 PM : Apr 16, 2009


---


Name one instance where the DHS under Bush came outright and said they were targeting Democrats??? Name one!!!

You may think it's cute now, but wait and see what happens to you, and you, and you, after they turn this country into communism. You'll be next! You have no idea what you're rooting for!

People that left socialism and communism to come here are shaking their heads in disbelief at the direction this country is headed!

[DefendLiberty]

Cracks me up. The GOP is always the one that screams "Surveillance of Americans is OK. If you have nothing to hide then you should not care." Then, when the nutjob extremist terrorists on the RIGHT are the ones who need to be watched they whine like little babies. F'em.They have reaped what they have sown. Time for the CIA and the NSA that GOP/Bushie let loose to shove their cameras up the GOP right wing nutjob CHRISTIAN TALIBAN azz. ROFLMAO. People never learn.

[wanttobeheard]

I am dumbfounded, this is unreal! Has a government agency actually sent a report out that is as baseless and ridiculous as this report. It makes no sense. Were these educated people that actually wrote this. Where is our Constitution. We need to get rid of all of the people that sat in a meeting and actually came up with this garbage and presented it in a report. They are the threats to our country! Unreal!

[toldyouso29]

Olberman is the biggest jagogg out there. He boasts about Cornell and Ann Coulter called him out on it. Basically he went to a branch campus of Cornell. Now granted Coulter is a right winger but she was right in calling his b.s out.
Posted by dhutch88 at 3:40 PM : Apr 16, 2009


Education and intellectualism has always been a sore/weak spot to the right due to so many members of the Republican party having not finished school or having less than stellar mental capacities. ...but think of this: out of all he may have said and been discussing, the key point for Coulter and the Republicans was where he went to school? Talk about priorities. LOL!!!

[toldyouso29]

If you caught the drift they singled out veterans. I wonder if a report like that pointed out that black people were a particular danger. I can see the individual being fired.
Posted by at 4:24 PM : Apr 16, 2009


NOOOOOOOO. They singled out extremist right wing groups. Vets were just one of the Demographics that were listed as being susceptible to those groups and with their training--more dangerous. If Blacks would normally be accepted and gravitate to those groups--they'd be on the list too.

think about it--first comes the anger, then the hate, then the unrest and spokespersons to speak for groups, then come those bold enough or irrational enough to act, then come those with skills....it all starts with an ugly group willing to tear down everything if they can't rule..that is the far right--even Dems did not behave so badly nor did Dem spokespeople speak or focus so much in undermining the government.

But this is a set up and right wingers are playing right into it. If race wars, secession or any major unrest follows, we are already being primed to blame the republican right--and with their history and hate filled blogs and Limbaughs andO'reilleys...no one will doubt that if mayhem comes, Republicans created/caused it--even if it is not really the truth or the entire story. Talk about a group being played.

[globalcoolin]

Decades ago a phony John Kerry grabbed headlines smearing the individuals of the US Uniformed Service, intent on launching a discimination campaign against military people.
He did it in conjuction with liars and people who claimed to be veterans...but were not!
We have just seen the discriminatiopn campaign raise it's ugly head again, and though subtle and soft, it's the soft discrimination that does the worste damage to good people!
This woman needs a shopping cart and brige to sleep under.

[democracy1]

Olberman is the biggest jagogg out there. He boasts about Cornell and Ann Coulter called him out on it. Basically he went to a branch campus of Cornell. Now granted Coulter is a right winger but she was right in calling his b.s out.
Posted by dhutch88 at 3:40 PM : Apr 16, 2009

Pleeeeease! Our state University has at least 5 branch campuses. As do those in most states to provide access to those who may find it more convenient not to have to travel so far. The degree, however, is exactly yhe same as one conferred to those who attend the main campus.

You people are sooooooooooo desperate and so unaware of how obvious you are about it as well. It's called "grasping at straws" and you losers are masters of it. It's pitiful.

[alanrobisch]

They can spew all the empty, hateful, anti-Obama rhetoric they want for no other purpose than to try to improve their prospects in the next election cycle, but the then they are SHOCKED, SHOCKED when the results of a study that BUSH requested find that RIGHT WING groups are a danger.
Posted by mcthreeteeth at 4:15 PM : Apr 16, 2009

If you caught the drift they singled out veterans. I wonder if a report like that pointed out that black people were a particular danger. I can see the individual being fired.

[alanrobisch]

Who cares. EVERYTHING angers the GOP. They are a dying animal, mad with pain, so they are just frothing at the mouth and biting everything that moves. No one gives a rat's patuti what the GOP thinks.
Posted by kansas1946 at 4:01 PM : Apr 16, 2009

You are exactly the reason why I rarely post here.. Your comments are smears and have little substance in fact.

[kansas1946]

DHS' Domestic Terror Warning Angers GOP
****************************************************

Who cares. EVERYTHING angers the GOP. They are a dying animal, mad with pain, so they are just frothing at the mouth and biting everything that moves. No one gives a rat's patuti what the GOP thinks.

[dhutch88]

At least Olberman and Maddow acknowledge and apologize for their mistakes or errors.
Posted by steeepe at 3:19 PM : Apr 16, 2009
+ report abuse

Olberman is the biggest jagogg out there. He boasts about Cornell and Ann Coulter called him out on it. Basically he went to a branch campus of Cornell. Now granted Coulter is a right winger but she was right in calling his b.s out.

[steeepe]

If thats the case NBC,CBS,CNN,MSNBC would be off the air for spewing liberal B.S. So would DHS. They called veterans coming home potential terriorists. Hell they do not have the balls to call musilum extermists. I

WATERBOARD ON. LIBS ARE WUSSES.
Posted by dhutch88 at 3:03 PM : Apr 16, 2009

MSNBC has a liberal slant, no doubt, but they don't claim otherwise. The problem with Fox "News" is that they claim to be "fair and balanced" when obviously they're not. More typical GOP hypocrisy and lies and propaganda. Most of the other networks at least try to be objective. Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck et al very often get the facts wrong but NEVER correct their mistakes or blatant lies. At least Olberman and Maddow acknowledge and apologize for their mistakes or errors.

[dhutch88]

Its the Truth. RUSH Loud Mouth needs to be taken off the air with his Right Wing Rants of Republican Hate and Hog Wash. Somebody needs to just Flush Rush down the toilet and get rid of him once and for all.
Posted by Oregon_State_OSU at 2:15 PM : Apr 16, 2009
+ report abuse +

If thats the case NBC,CBS,CNN,MSNBC would be off the air for spewing liberal B.S. So would DHS. They called veterans coming home potential terriorists. Hell they do not have the balls to call musilum extermists. I

WATERBOARD ON. LIBS ARE WUSSES.

[hakori]

For gezzzz sake! Here we go again! For the entire time the "evil" Clinton was in the White House, the GOP tried their damnest to trash his presidency. When nothing else worked, they went after his private life. You all remember-the whole thing that wasn't about the sex but about the lies, which in itself is a lie. If it wasn't about the sex, why was it ever an issue? They're up to their old games again by being against Obama just because. Sorry republicants, but the country has caught on to your little game. It won't work this time! You're going to have to try something else, like actually putting some effort into coming up with some real ideas! Being the party of anti-everything just doesn't cut the mustard anymore.

[steeepe]

With the Governor of Texas practically calling for secession, is it any wonder that these right-wing nut cases incited by lying airheads like Glenn Beck and Hannity and Limbaugh may be dangerous? I bet a lot of disgruntled ignorant dopes with chips on their shoulder are buying guns in Texas just waiting for the signal.

[actornaught]

Posted by nancy_naive at 10:34 AM : Apr 16, 2009

My kid's going to be a doctor. Best i could teach her there was how to stop a cramp in your foot.

Aim higher...

[actornaught]

Why do the 'pubs want to associate themselves with extremists? Are they dedicated to being outside looking in? What is it?

[mrzerato]

Posted by globalcoolin at 10:15 AM : Apr 16, 2009
Posted by globalcoolin at 9:57 AM : Apr 16, 2009


HUH!!!!

2 posts and I can not tell what you are talking about