08/13/2009 Patriotic Americans nationwide have descended upon town halls and Congressional district offices for the past two weeks to express their displeasure with Barack Obama’s monocratic health care takeover. And for their efforts, they have been condemned and ridiculed by their own elected representatives as “un-American,” “political terrorists,” “uncivilized,” and “Brown Shirts.”
Not to mention, “rightwing extremists”.
The fact is, these despicable comments—made by members of Congress referring to passionate constituents who rightly want their representatives to listen to them for a change—are nothing short of an all-out assault on the American people. And they are being orchestrated by Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack “Punch Back” Obama.
Unfortunately, they are not without precedent.
Comparisons have even been made by one Congressman to domestic terrorists. Congressman Brian Baird (WA-CD3) said, referring to ObamaCare opponents, “Some of the rhetoric that we’re hearing is… eerily reminiscent of the kind of things that drove Tim McVeigh to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma.” Simply stunning.
But again, not without precedent. In fact, some of the rabid rhetoric to which Americans are being subjected—from members of Congress—is eerily reminiscent of a so-called “threat” assessment issued by the Department of Homeland Security back in April.
Remember, this was the same memo that defined “rightwing extremist” as “groups, movements, and adherents… that
are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority” and “groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”
Hmm, kind of like those “Brown Shirts” (to use Brian Baird’s term) descending upon town halls nationwide.
Of course, this is the same memo that has now been discredited. After filing a Freedom of Information Act Request with the Department of Homeland Security into the methodology used, Americans for Limited Government has learned that no intelligence sources were utilized. No crime data or statistics. In short, no evidence of any planned attacks or active recruitment by groups known to have planned attacks.
As ALG President Bill Wilson, yesterday on the Fred Thompson show, explained, “They gave local law enforcement in effect a green light to say, ‘Okay, there’s a pro-gun group,’ or ‘there’s a group that believes in the 10th Amendment’ and, you can now at least watch them and consider them as possible domestic terrorist incubators. Meanwhile, they had no data, they had no analysis. They had nothing but the ranting and raving of lunatics on the left as their ‘back-up.’
It’s worse than political propaganda. It really smacks of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro-type of things.”
The FOIA response from the Department related to “All data and all studies, reports, or other documents regarding data created or reviewed by the Department in general to draft the Report… [and] on the specific groups listed in the footnote on page 2 of the Report that were used by the Department.”
Those studies and reports included 217 pages, “releasable in their entirety, all of which are publicly available,” according to the DHS FOIA response. All of the data used by the Department are available via the Internet. A summary of those web-links is included here.
As it turns out, the data, studies, and reports used by DHS were largely gathered from hard left groups like the fund-raising front Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and even one crackpot “news service” that once reported that a U.S. scientist had destroyed a “radio to God.”
William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration said it was no coincidence that the SPLC was cited as top sources by DHS. “It’s been very clear to us that the SPLC, ADL, and now unfortunately, DHS are interested in politicizing American law enforcement in a way that hasn’t happened since Germany and the Soviet Union in the 1930’s and ‘40’s,” Gheen said in an exclusive interview with ALG News.
Gheen said that he believed the same individuals who were responsible for drafting the controversial “rightwing extremism” memo were also responsible for a very similar threat assessment issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, a so-called federal fusion center, in February entitled “The Modern Militia Movement.”
In this “threat” advisory, police were told to keep an eye out for Americans who were highly concerned about unemployment, taxes, illegal immigration, gangs, border security, abortion, high costs of living, gun restrictions, FEMA, the IRS, and the Federal Reserve.
Hmm, just like some of those “nuts” at the town halls the members of Congress have grown to hate.
The MIAC advisory also stated that potential domestic terrorists would be attracted to gun shows, shortwave radios, action movies, movies with white male heroes like Rambo, Tom Clancy novels, and presidential candidates Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and Chuck Baldwin.
Much like the DHS memo, SPLC was cited as a top source of information. And much like the DHS memo, it was withdrawn by the agency that put it forward, followed by public apologies from government officials. Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder (R-MO) even asked that Missouri Public Safety Director John Britt be placed on administrative leave.
What is disquieting, however, is that in both cases, two governments—the state of Missouri and the federal government—unleashed police nationwide to go after “rightwing
extremists” with an overly broad mandate to view about half of thepopulation as possible “suspects.”
What if members of law enforcement had not leaked and made available to the people of Missouri the February “threat” assessment? What if great scrutiny had not been given to the DHS memo when it surfaced in April?
How, then, would law enforcement be treating participants in the town hall meetings of August?
Probably the same way Congressman Brian Baird wants to. And Nancy Pelosi. And Barack Obama. Like Timothy McVeigh. Like enemies of the state. Like anything but the patriotic Americans they actually are.
Robert Romano is the ALG Senior News Editor.
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