Inside the DHS: Former Top Analyst Says Agency Bowed to Political Pressure | Southern Poverty Law Center
While at DHS, Johnson and his team wrote the April 7, 2009 report, “Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.” The report, which was intended for law enforcement only, was quickly leaked and caused a firestorm among some on the political right who accused DHS of painting all kinds of conservatives as potential Timothy McVeighs. In fact, it had merely pointed out that some domestic extremists focused on single issues like immigration and abortion and also noted that extremists were interested in recruiting military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Its analysis of the causes of the surge of right-wing radicalism — the election of the nation’s first black president and the economy, among other things — still seems completely accurate and is in line with similar findings by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
But DHS ultimately reacted to criticism from conservative columnists and groups like the American Legion by withdrawing the report. (Ironically, given the criticism of his report, Johnson describes himself as a registered Republican who “personifies conservativism.”) In the months following the leak, Johnson says in the interview below, DHS gutted its domestic terrorism analysis unit.