[PAA-Discuss] Right-Wing Extremists Threaten The Nation
Melinda Iley-Dohn
iley_dohn at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 20 20:51:18 EDT 2009
Melinda Iley-Dohn
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin Historical Review of Pennsylvania 1759
--- On Mon, 4/20/09, Juli3 at aol.com <Juli3 at aol.com> wrote:
From: Juli3 at aol.com <Juli3 at aol.com>
Subject: [PAA-Discuss] Right-Wing Extremists Threaten The Nation
To: discuss at paa-tx.org
Date: Monday, April 20, 2009, 12:04 PM
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NATIONAL SECURITY
Right-Wing Extremists Threaten The Nation
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) released
a report warning that the economic recession and
the election of the first African-American president
could mobilize
right-wing extremist groups inside the United
States to gain new recruits. To bolster their ranks,
the groups may target veterans from Iraq and
Afghanistan, according to the analysis. The report
concluded that while the DHS "has no specific
information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently
planning acts of violence," right-wing extremists
-- or movements that it defined as "primarily
hate-oriented...and those that are mainly
antigovernment" -- "are focusing their efforts to
recruit
new members, mobilize existing supporters, and
broaden their scope and appeal through propaganda."
This document, along with an
earlier report on radicalized left-wing groups,
was requested by the Bush administration after
FBI Director Robert Mueller and other Bush
appointees acknowledged the threat
of right-wing
extremism. One DHS official described the
report as "nothing
unusual." "This is the job of DHS, to assess what
is happening in this country, with regard to homegrown
terrorism, and determine whether it's an actual threat
or not, and that's what these assessments do. ... These
assessments are done all the time," the official
said. But despite the nature of the report,
conservative commentators are outraged,
insisting that the document's characterization of
"right-wing extremism" represents a direct attack on
Republican loyalists, conservative ideology, and
veterans returning home from Iraq and
Afghanistan. Christian Coalition founder Pat
Robertson went so far as to suggest that the report
"shows somebody down in the bowels of that
organization is either a convinced left winger or somebody
whose sexual orientation is somewhat in
question."
WHAT THE
REPORT SAYS: According to the report, "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." Specifically,
the report finds that "rightwing extremist groups'
frustration over a perceived lack of government action
on illegal immigration" and the government's
"heightened interest in legislation for tighter
firearms, may be invigorating rightwing extremist
activity." The report also found that extremist groups
may "attempt
to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in
order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived
from military training and combat." In February,
the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that the
"number of hate groups operating in the United States
continued to rise in 2008 and has grown
by 54 percent since 2000 -- an increase fueled
last year by immigration fears, a failing economy and
the successful campaign of Barack
Obama."
CONSERVATIVES PRETEND
THEY ARE TARGETS: Most conservative
commentators passionately argued that the
report's description of right-wing extremists
represented a politically-motivated
attempt to "smear" conservatives. In a column
published on FoxNews.com, Oliver North declared
that his Christian faith and respect for the
second amendment "makes
me a 'right-wing extremist.'" Fox News host Neil
Cavuto asserted that the report "more or less states
the government considers
you a terrorist threat if you oppose abortion,
speak out against illegal immigration, or you are a
returning war veteran." Sean Hannity
announced that "if you disagree with that liberal path
that President Obama's taken the country down, you
may soon catch the attention of the Department of
Homeland Security." Appearing on Hannity's Fox News
show to
rant about the report, RNC Chairman Michael Steele
similarly declared that "to segment out Americans who
dissent from this administration, to segment out
conservatives in this country who have a different
philosophy or view from this administration and
labeling them as terrorists...to
me is the height of insult." Rush Limbaugh
claimed that the report portrayed "standard,
ordinary, everyday conservatives as posing a bigger
threat to this country than al Qaeda terrorists or
genuine enemies of this country like Kim Jong Il,"
and Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the ranking
Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee,
even "asked
for a hearing into the matter," suggesting that
the DHS should focus
on the threat emanating from Muslims instead.
The DHS report did
not target "conservatives" or "Republican
loyalists." Indeed, it's odd that
conservatives would willingly group themselves and
Republicans in with "rightwing extremist activity,
specifically the white
supremacist and militia movements" -- the actual
focus of the DHS report.
CONSERVATIVES CLAIM OBAMA
TARGETED VETERANS: Several conservatives
also misrepresented the intelligence
assessment as an attack on American veterans. The
Obama administration is "specifically warning that
veterans returning home from war, are to be feared --
that they could be right-wing extremists that
want to launch terror attacks on
America," Joe Scarborough argued on MSNBC's
Morning Joe. House Republican Leader John Boehner
(R-OH) claimed that "to characterize men and women
returning home after defending our country as
potential terrorists is offensive and
unacceptable. The Department of Homeland Security
owes
our veterans an apology." But the report actually
argued that the danger isn't from
veterans themselves, but from the efforts of
right-wing extremists to "recruit
and radicalize returning veterans in order to
exploit their skills and knowledge derived from
military training and combat." "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," the report concluded. And
while Napolitano apologized
to those who found the report offensive, she
explained that "the report is not
saying that veterans are extremists. Far from it.
What it is saying is returning veterans are targets
of right-wing extremist groups that are trying to
recruit those to commit violent acts within the
country. We want to do all we can to prevent that." In
fact, as Media Matters pointed out, the report even
"cited a 2008 FBI report
-- authored during the Bush administration -- as
evidence that 'some returning military veterans from
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have joined extremist
groups.'" The 2.2 million-member Veterans of
Foreign Wars also issued a statement clarifying
that "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. It
was just an assessment about possibilities that
could take place."
ENVIRONMENT
-- BOEHNER CITES COW FARTS IN ORDER TO DOWNPLAY
GLOBAL WARMING: Yesterday on ABC's This
Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked House
Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
to describe the GOP "plan" for dealing
with global warming. Boehner downplayed the
risk of carbon dioxide and global warming,
claiming carbon dioxide is simply a natural
compound that is present even in cow
flatulence. "George, the idea that carbon
dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our
environment is almost
comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale
carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you
know, when they do what they do, you've got more
carbon dioxide," he said. While humans and
animals exhale carbon dioxide naturally, no one
is arguing that CO2 itself is harmful. But
excessive carbon dioxide in the air is harming
the planet and human health. In fact, the
Environmental Protection Agency recently ruled
in a landmark decision that carbon dioxide
emissions are "a
danger to human health and
welfare." Furthermore, it is methane,
not carbon dioxide, that is the primary chemical
in cow flatulence that contributes
to global warming. Boehner also expressed
skepticism about the degree that global warming
is caused by man. "The question is how
much does man have to do with it, and what
is the proper way to deal with this?" he asked.
Boehner isn't the only Republican to downplay
the risk of greenhouse emissions recently. Rep.
John Shimkus (R-IL) said last month that capping
carbon dioxide would take away "plant
food" from the atmosphere.
ADMINISTRATION --
OBAMA CHIEF OF STAFF: WHITE HOUSE OPPOSES
PROSECUTING TORTURE MEMO
AUTHORS: Last week, when President
Obama released four Bush-era legal memos
authorizing the use of torture against terrorist
suspects, he declared that his administration
would not seek to prosecute those "who
carried out their duties relying in good
faith upon legal advice from the Department
of Justice." The declaration seemed to leave the
door open to prosecutions of the Justice
Department officials, like current federal judge
Jay Bybee, who authorized illegal torture.
However, on ABC's This Week yesterday,
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel rejected
such a possibility. "[T]hose who devised the
policies...should
not be prosecuted either. And it's not the
place that we go," Emanuel said. However, the
U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor
Manfred Nowak, said in a recent interview that
any grant of immunity from Obama is likely a
violation of international law. When asked if
Obama's decision not to pursue prosecutions of
CIA officials was "supportable," Nowak replied,
"Absolutely not. The United States has, like all
other Contracting Parties to the U.N. Convention
Against Torture, committed
itself to investigate instances of torture and
to prosecute all cases in which credible
evidence of torture is found." To those who call
for investigations, Emanuel simply stated, "This
is not a time for retribution. It's a time
for reflection." Fire Dog Lake's Jane Hamsher
asks, "Is Rahm saying that President Obama
believes they're nothing more than an angry,
vindictive mob, and that
nobody could possibly have a rational basis
for believing that our laws should be
enforced?"
RADICAL RIGHT --
CITING NO EVIDENCE, STEELE ALLEDGES GOVERNMENT
WAS SPYING ON ANTI-ABORTION RALLY HE
ATTENDED: Last Friday on Fox News, host
Sean Hannity and his guest, RNC Chairman Michael
Steele, ranted and raved about a Department of
Homeland Security report requested
by the Bush administration that warned of
increasing incidents of "rightwing
radicalization and recruitment." Hannity
responded by implying that President Obama
himself is a possible terrorist threat. "If
you're pro-life, you're viewed as the potential
extremist," he complained, but "you can start
your career in the home of an unrepentant
terrorist and hang out with a guy named Jeremiah
Wright." "I don't want to beat an old horse
here," said Hannity, who incessantly
harps
on
Obama's past affiliations. "But I'm telling
you if anyone hung out with radicals that needs
to be investigated by Homeland Security," he
said, cutting himself off before explicitly
stating that the President of the United States
might be a terrorist threat. Steele, who spoke
at an anti-abortion rally in Indiana this
past week,then said he was "sure" that the
government spied on the event. "They've got
their eye on the 3,000 Americans who
assembled in Indiana last night, in Evansville,
Indiana, to profess their continued effort to
save the life of the unborn....I'm sure there
was somebody in the room with a
notepad and a camera taking snapshots and
writing down names. But that's not the place
our government needs to be," Steele said. Of
course, Steele offered no evidence that the
government was monitoring the
event.
President Obama will visit the CIA today, "in
a bid to reassure staff stung by the release
of memos detailing harsh interrogation
techniques." Obama will discuss "the importance
of the CIA" and "reassure
CIA officers of his promise not to seek
prosecution of CIA agents or former officials"
involved in torture.
Days after Gov. David Paterson (D-NY) unveiled
a same-sex marriage bill, Rudy Giuliani
is "declaring war on gay marriage."
Giuliani, who is pro-civil unions, is "vowing to
use his strong opposition of it against the
Democrats if
he runs for governor next year."
Republicans are struggling with a
health care reform "message [that] is
still vague and unformed." "I thought
we would have been much farther along than we
are," said Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX). Rep. Roy
Blunt's (R-MO) Health Care Task Force "wants to
come up with fresh solutions and not just party
rhetoric -- and
that takes some time," said a spokesman for
Blunt.
ExxonMobil has supplanted Wal-Mart
atop the Fortune 500 list, which ranks
companies by their annual earnings. "Texas-based
Exxon took in $442.85 billion in revenue last
year, up
almost 19% from 2007." Wal-Mart, which had
held the top spot for six of the last seven
years, had revenues of $405.6 billion.
Every day, the White House sorts through its
mail and picks at least 10 letters for
President Obama to read, a process
designed to "offer a sampling of what Americans
are thinking." The letters are read by the
president, and he sometimes answers them by
hand. In a letter to the mother of a soldier,
Obama wrote, "I will do everything in my power
to make troops like Matthew my priority. ...Please
tell him 'thank you for your service' from
his commander in chief!"
Today, the Senate is scheduled to vote to
end debate on the nomination of Chris
Hill to be ambassador to Iraq. The
opposition to Hill's nomination from several
Republican senators led by Sam Brownback (KS) is
"not
expected to derail Hill's eventual
confirmation."
Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman
al-Zawahri, posted a video online today,
urging "Muslims not to be fooled by U.S.
President Barack Obama's policies,
which he said...are no different to those of his
predecessor, George W. Bush." "[Obama] is
calling for change, but he aims to change
us so that we abandon our religion and
rights," al-Zawahri said.
And finally: First runner-up Miss
California caused a stir in yesterday's Miss USA
pageant when she was asked
a question about legalizing same-sex
marriage. "We live in a land where you can
choose same-sex
marriage or opposite marriage," Carrie
Prejean said. "And you know what, I think in my
country, in my family, I think that I believe
that a marriage should be between a man and a
woman. No offense to anybody out there, but
that's how I was raised." Scott Ihrig, a gay man
who attended the pageant with his partner,
called her answer "ugly," adding, "That is not
the value of 95 percent of the people in this
audience. Look around this audience and tell me
how many gay men there are."
President Obama plans to order Cabinet secretaries
to cut $100 million from their combined budgets over
the next 90 days, a signal of "the president's
determination to cut
spending and reform government."
NORTH
CAROLINA: Recession is leading to a health-care
crisis.
MISSOURI:
State House approves legislation rejecting Real
ID.
NEW
JERSEY: Bills offering in-state tuition to
undocumented immigrants face an uncertain future.
THINK
PROGRESS: Alberto Gonzales stopped an FBI probe of
Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) because he "needed Jane" to
sell warrantless wiretapping.
WONK
ROOM: Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH): With cap-and-trade,
President Obama "has declared war on Ohio and
Indiana."
YGLESIAS:
Commentary's Abe Greenwald is pro-torture.
GRIST:
How to comment on the Environmental Protection
Agency's finding that greenhouse gases endanger public
health.
"McCain for the longest time said torture doesn't
work, then he admitted...last summer that he was
broken by the North Vietnamese."
-- Rush Limbaugh,
4/17/09, advocating
the use of torture
VERSUS
"I gave the names of the
Green Bay Packers' offensive line, and said they were
members of my squadron. When asked to identify future
targets, I simply recited the names of a number of
North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed."
-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), from his memoir, Faith of My
Fathers
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