March 29, 2010
Several months ago, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a simliar report targeting conservatives and ideals as "Right-wing Extremism". After intense public scrutiny and a strong back-lash from Congressional conservatives, the report was retracted.
Now, with all the Tea-Party demonization efforts and hub-bub, DHS comes out with a rather timely report to further paint the Tea-Party movement into some "radical and/or racist" organization that is more or less violent. Logic would tell you this isn't the case, as we've seen, the Tea-Party movement is a mix of all races and political backgrounds including Dems, Repubs, Libertarians, Independents etc. etc.. The groups have protested peacefully since its' creation over a year ago. Other attempts to counter this group have also been tried (as with the Coffee Party).
The new report is 10 pages, and as you may have suspected, it starts with the "White Supremacist" and "anti-government" rhetoric claiming they have plans to carry out "violent acts" because of the current economic conditions causing foreclosures, unemployment etc. Like the old "lost teenager" synopsis for joining gangs, the DHS report mimics this saying the conditions are ripe for "recruitment".
On page 1, we get a summary of what these groups are about and that "right-wing extremists" are "capitalizing on the first African-American President" as a means for recruitment (though Obama is only 50% Black - go figure)...
— (U//LES) Threats from white supremacist and violent antigovernment groupsduring 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to carry
out violent acts. Nevertheless, 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 similar to those in the past.
— (U//LES) Rightwing extremists have capitalized on the election of the firstAfrican American president, and are focusing their efforts to recruit new
members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and appeal
through propaganda, but they have not yet turned to attack planning.
It goes on to say what we're seeing now is similar to the 1990's etc. (In case you didn't know, Bill Clinton was really the first Black President). This report, though, has a new twist about Veterans returning home. Instead of saying this time (as the last report) that they were mentally unstable and likely to form "anti-government" groups, this report claims that they are targets for recruitment by "right-wing Extremists" because of their military skills.
Yet, The Serve America Act (still in legislation), which aims to have 250,000 AmeriCorps members by the year 2017, also states that Veterans with these skills are ideal for recruitment into national service under this Act (page 234):
‘‘(ii) recruiting veterans, particularly returning veterans, into service opportunities, including opportunities that utilize their military experience;
So, the DHS reports echos exactly what is in the Serve America Act, but instead of serving the government, they would be serving "right-wing" extremists. So i guess both the DNC (sponsoring this bill) and "right-wing extremists" want these guys for their skills according to the Serve America Act and the DHS report. Go figure!
The rest of the DHS report goes on to explain these "conditions" causing an increase in hostility towards the govenment etc. There is a small section on "Disgruntled Veterans" too (now looking further down in the report).
The first report of this nature put intense pressure on Janet Napolitano for releasing it. Will she get the same scrutiny for this report?
