In the wake of the MIAC report and the Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment, another document issued by the Department of Homeland Security “for official use only” covering so-called “rightwing extremism” has surfaced. The document warns federal and local officials to expect “terrorism” in response to planned firearm restrictions and other points covered below.
Alex Jones called the numbers listed on the document and validated its authenticity. He contacted the “watch captain” at the Department of Homeland Security’s National Infrastructure Coordinating Center who confirmed the product number on the document as legitimate but would not comment further. A call to the FBI went unanswered.
The following points covered in the document are of particular concern:
Gun Sales
According to the DHS and FBI, local law enforcement’s primary concern should be the high volume of gun and ammunitions purchases over the last few months. The document equates Americans who stockpile ammunition to “rightwing terrorists.” Moreover, stockpiling (merely purchasing) ammunition is an indication of involvement in “paramilitary training exercises” and potential terrorist activity.
According to the Irish Times, the “stockpiling” of ammunition and increased firearm sales are due to the fear Obama will impose new gun laws and other restrictions. “Gun-shop owners and the National Rifle Association (NRA) say the surge is driven by worries that President Obama is planning to ban many types of firearms and that the deepening economic crisis will fuel a crime wave.”
If we are to believe the DHS and the FBI, these Americans, numbering in the millions, are violence prone terrorists and a threat to local law enforcement. In addition, as noted below, concerns about crime due to a worsening economy are paranoid fantasies exploited by terrorists
Job Losses and the Economy
The document states that job losses, home foreclosures, and the collapsing economy are “perceived” by rightwing terrorists and exploited by them to “draw in new recruits” and further radicalize “those already subscribing to extremist beliefs.” According to the document, the economic crisis is a perception without a foundation in reality, merely an exaggerated device used by terrorists.
In other words, if you complain about the faltering economy reported upon numerous times a day by the corporate media you are a rightwing extremist and a terrorist who may resort to violence and threaten local law enforcement, especially if you support the Second Amendment, own firearms, and “stockpile” (purchase) ammunition.
Illegal Immigration
Like the economic crisis, illegal immigration is at best a perception, not reality, and the rightwing terrorists have exploited this political issue as a racist “call to action” and recruitment tool. The DHS document claims the extremists have exploited the First Amendment on this issue in order to foment violence against illegal immigrants and those who support amnesty and other schemes to legalize illegal immigration. The DHS document cites several examples supposedly linked to anti-immigrant violence committed by “militia members” and mentions a “machinegun attack on Hispanics.”
Stated Purpose of the Document
Dated April 7, 2009, the “scope” of the document is as follows:
This product is one of a series of intelligence assessments published by the Extremism and Radicalization Branch to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States. The information is provided to federal, state, local, and tribal counterterrorism and law enforcement officials so they may effectively deter, prevent, preempt, or respond to terrorist attacks against the United States. Federal efforts to influence domestic public opinion must be conducted in an overt and transparent manner, clearly identifying United States Government sponsorship.
The DHS document — with the unwieldy title “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” — contains the following warning:
LAW ENFORCEMENT INFORMATION NOTICE: This product contains Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES) information. No portion of the LES information should be released to the media, the general public, or over non-secure Internet servers. Release of this information could adversely affect or jeopardize investigative activities.
Warning: This document is UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY (U//FOUO). It contains information that may be exempt from public release under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). It is to be controlled, stored, handled, transmitted, distributed, and disposed of in accordance with DHS policy relating to FOUO information and is not to be released to the public, the media, or other personnel who do not have a valid need-to-know without prior approval of an authorized DHS official. State and local homeland security officials may share this document with authorized security personnel without further approval from DHS.
The DHS wanted the document to remain secret but it was leaked, probably by “authorized security personnel” in local law enforcement (as was the case with the MIAC document produced by the Missouri State Police). Information in the document was “provided to federal, state, local, and tribal counterterrorism and law enforcement officials so they may effectively deter, prevent, preempt, or respond to terrorist attacks against the United States.”
The DHS document — produced in coordination with the FBI — begins by stating it is “one of a series of intelligence assessments published by the Extremism and Radicalization Branch to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States” (it is interesting to note the phrase “violent radicalization” is the same one used in H.R. 1955, entitled the “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007?).
Key Findings
In “Key Findings,” the DHS document states that the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no “no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues [specifically gun control]. The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment.”
The above text points to a footnote on the page dividing “rightwing terrorists” into two categories — “adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely.”
It is significant the DHS (and FBI) categorize opposition to the government as terrorism. The FBI in particular has labeled various “rightwing” movements as extremist for more than a decade, so this is nothing new or revelatory.
The authors of the document drag out all of the old “rightwing” bugaboos, most notably the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. In addition, they mention the “[p]roposed imposition of firearms restrictions and weapons bans” resulting in recruiting new members and culminating in the “planning and training for violence against the government.”
In order to underscore this assertion, the authors note the “high volume of purchases and stockpiling of weapons and ammunition by rightwing extremists in anticipation of restrictions and bans in some parts of the country continue to be a primary concern to law enforcement.” In fact, as noted above, the “high volume of purchases,” as the media has reported, is a reaction on the part of Americans in general regardless of ideological persuasion. It is a common sense reaction to the documented fact president Obama is opposed to firearms ownership, even though he claims to support the Second Amendment.
The DHS I&A attributes the purported “resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalization activity” to economic factors and the election of Barack Obama. “Despite similarities to the climate of the 1990s [a reference to the militia movement exaggerated by government and corporate media], the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years. In addition, the historical election of an African American president and the prospect of policy changes [i.e., gun registration leading to eventual confiscation] are proving to be a driving force for rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalization.”
The tone of the document indicates that the government plans to impose restrictions on the ownership of firearms. In addition, the document warns local law enforcement that “rightwing terrorists” will violently resist any attempt to register or confiscate guns.
Link to Pittsburgh Cop Killer
In order to stress the point, the authors cite as an example the murder of three police officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
The alleged gunman’s reaction reportedly was influenced by his racist ideology and belief in antigovernment conspiracy theories related to gun confiscations, citizen detention camps, and a Jewish-controlled “one world government.”
Following this event, the liberal noise machine, funded in large part by the Soros and Ford foundations, expended an extraordinary amount of energy attempting to link the murders to Fox News and Alex Jones. Jones was singled out by the Anti-Defamation League (Shooter In Pittsburgh Cop Killings Held Strongly Anti-Semitic And Racist Beliefs, April 6, 2009) as having influenced the alleged killer, Richard Poplawski, who frequented the white supremacist website hosted by Stormfront. “According to ADL, Poplawski also frequented ‘Infowars,’ the Web site of the right-wing conspiracy radio talk-show host Alex Jones, where he shared links to its stories with others and sometimes posted his own messages to the site,” the ADL wrote in the above linked press release.
Similarity to SPLC and ADL Talking Points
According to the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, the MIAC documents were heavily influenced by “faulty and politicized research issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Anti Defamation League (ADL).”
The Southern Poverty Law Center was cited as a research source for the ‘Missouri Documents’. Furthermore, the attempt of these documents to cast suspicion of violent and life threatening behavior on millions of Americans who are concerned about these issues [unemployment, taxes, illegal immigration, gangs, border security, abortion, high costs of living, gun restrictions, FEMA, the IRS, The Federal Reserve, and the North American Union/SPP/North American Community] is consistent with the regularly released political materials of both the SPLC and ADL.
The DHS’ “Extremism and Radicalization Branch” participated in the “Global Summit on Internet Hate Speech” organized by the International Network Against Cyber-Hate and the Anti-Defamation League and held November 17-18, 2008, in Washington, DC. Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, was a key speaker at the event.
The DHS document claims today’s “rightwing terrorists” present more of a threat than those of the earlier period:
Unlike the earlier period, the advent of the Internet and other informationage technologies since the 1990s has given domestic extremists greater access to information related to bomb-making, weapons training, and tactics, as well as targeting of individuals, organizations, and facilities, potentially making extremist individuals and groups more dangerous and the consequences of their violence more severe. New technologies also permit domestic extremists to send and receive encrypted communications and to network with other extremists throughout the country and abroad, making it much more difficult for law enforcement to deter, prevent, or preempt a violent extremist attack.
The document makes it clear the DHS and FBI consider websites such as Infowars and Prison Planet to be vehicles for “potentially making extremist individuals and groups more dangerous and the consequences of their violence more severe.” (Note: Alex Jones has repeatedly warned his listeners against violence.)
Recall a House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on “Terrorism and the Internet” held in November, 2007, and broadcast on C-Span, that featured a panel of “experts,” including representatives formerly of the RAND Corporation and the Simon Wiesenthal Center who presented 9/11 truth websites sites alongside sites that celebrate the attacks and offer training in terrorist tactics. “The hearing was chaired by Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, and ranking Republican, Rep. Dave Reichert. It was supposed to focus on the use of the internet by ‘home grown terrorist recruiters’ yet in a shocking move it blatantly related the 9/11 truth movement with so called radical ‘jihadists,’” Paul Joseph and Steve Watson wrote at the time.
Alleged “falsehoods” and “conspiracy theories,” according to RAND corporation director Bruce Hoffman, “have now become so ubiquitous and so pervasive that they are believed, so you have almost a parallel truth, and it has become a very effective tool for recruiting people.”
Rep. Jane Harman sponsored the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.
As Alex Jones has noted numerous times on his radio show, the FBI and military intelligence have taken a keen interest in the comment sections on Infowars and Prison Planet. In the last week and a half the liberal noise machine and to a lesser degree the corporate media have kicked into overdrive in an attempt to link Jones and his websites to a deluded and violent individual. It should not be considered a coincidence the DHS document considers the murders in Pittsburgh an indication of emerging “rightwing terrorist” violence, specifically in response to “proposed” gun laws now in the works, as the document indicates.
Conclusion
The document is designed primarily to radicalize local law enforcement and convince individual police officers that citizens opposed to violations of the Second Amendment, draconian gun legislation (including registration and ammunition tracking schemes) and illegal immigration are terrorists capable of committing acts of violence against them. It is a cynical effort to increase the tension between police and the community at large, especially members of the community that exercise the Second Amendment and oppose open border policies.
In addition, the document equates opposition to the policies of Barack Obama to racism. Opposition to "a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use" is characterized as exploiting "racial and political prejudices."
Obviously, the document is part of a larger campaign by the government to circumvent legitimate political activism and characterize such activity as the behavior of a violent minority of terrorists. It is noteworthy that several issues of concern to our rulers — namely firearm possession and the effort to flood the country with lower paid workers and thus undermine the middle class — are highlighted in this until now secret and restricted document. (4.13.2009, Kurt Nimmo)