Right-Wing Extremists Threaten The Nation

April 20, 2009

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, Ryan Powers, and Igor Volsky

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."

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.

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.

"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

The research team that brings you The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org needs summer interns! Click here for more information.

Think Progress

Right-Wing Extremists Threaten The Nation

Blogroll