Comment

FBI Extremist Probe and Veterans

439
njoriole4/17/2009 11:30:41 am PDT

I’m sorry Charles, but you seem to miss the main point here. The DHS drummed up a lot of scary prospects based upon, by their own admission in the report, nothing that has happened, or is even reasonably anticipated to happen in the near future, at least with respect to ACTUAL (as opposed to derangement syndrome-inspired) violence. When they specifically noted the danger (or concern, or whatever the actual wording was) from “single-issue” people - and pointedly mentioned those who are anti-abortion and anti-immigration reform - that moved the report from the realm (however tenuous) of true threat assessment to naked political calculation. Furthermore, we now find out that DHS’s own civil rights division strongly urged removing some of the more egregious passages, but was overruled/ignored. None of this concerns you in the least? Finally, to those who say smugly that the DHS also prepared a report on left-wing extremism, bear in mind that THAT report talked about ACTUAL extremism and violence by, for example, the Earth Liberation Front, which has, in fact, perpetrated real (not imagined or presumed) violence, including bombings. This is the perspective sadly lacking in your castigation of the “kooks.”