DHS Report Warned Against Anti-Semitic Violence

A heavily criticized Department of Homeland Security Report on right-wing extremism that was released in April warned precisely of the type of violent anti-Semitic activity that occurred at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

Early this afternoon, a man in his late-80s with ties to white supremacist organizations opened fire inside the museum, reportedly hitting two people, including a security guard, in the process.

James W. Von Brunn, according to reports, has a history of anti-Semitism and may have been driven by such feelings when he committed his violent act. Indeed, Von Brunn even had anti-Semitic writings on his web site, and had made pejorative remarks about Jewish control of the Justice system.

In light of these biographical revelations, it is worth revisiting the DHS report that was deemed by conservatives to be so controversial.

In April, the Department of Homeland Security issued a draft memorandum warning that the current economic and political landscape created dangerously ripe conditions for a resurgence in radicalization and extremist recruitment. In it, federal officials warned specifically about an upswing of anti-Semitic behavior.

"Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish 'financial elites,'" the report read. "These 'accusatory' tactics are employed to draw new recruits into right-wing extremist groups and further radicalize those already subscribing to extremist beliefs."

When the 10-page DHS memorandum was made public, however, warnings like these largely took the back seat to charges that the department had been politically motivated in its assessments and writings. Indeed, a wide swath of voices in the conservative movement -- from Rush Limbaugh to RNC Chairman Michael Steele -- lashed out at DHS Secretary Napolitano over what they deemed an anti-Republican report.

"This is the height of insult here," Steele told Fox News. "I mean to segment out Americans who dissent from this administration, to segment out conservatives in this country who have a different philosophy or view from this administration, and labeling them as terrorists and then to call into question the service of the men and women who are right now standing on that wall defending our freedom and linking them to terrorism while you refuse to call the terrorists -- the real terrorists -- terrorists, to me it's the height of insult."

It's been several months now since that DHS report was issues and, sadly, the study is proving increasingly prescient. In addition to the Von Brunn shootings, there has been the killing of abortion provider George Tiller, another type of ideologically-driven killing that Napolitano warned against.

"Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely," the DHS report reads. "It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."

Comments

[DeWayne]

09:04 PM on 06/11/2009

This article and talking points were so full of holes and charges unrelated to the tragedy, it would more certainly be identified as certain covert individuals and agents involved in black attempt of covering up "State Crime" activities instead within the US government.

Immediately after some maladjusted individual with abnormal behavior becomes involved in demented killing, some (part) of the US-Government wants to make a new law concerning a situation that (no) law will ever prevent, a singular individual suddenly going wild and killing others.

Are we to believe that before this, there were no intelligence or laws in force that citizens of this nation did not find preventive in nature and fact. Are we to believe more law will eliminate this situation ever happening again.

[DeWayne]

07:53 PM on 06/12/2009

Is it a semantic issue always ethically immoral when discussing preceived wrongs and errors, besides the deranged individual discussed in this article, then what of the Israeli soldiers calling themselves "Breaking Silence" refusing most adamantly regarding policies of the Zionist-gov they claim are violation most egregious against Palestinian citizens. Saying they will no longer obey orders and follow policy doing these immoral and unethical policyas actions against the Palestinian people.

Was the recent attack upon devout Jewish Rabbi in Jerusalem when stones and knives were used, throwing these Rabbi about as rags an act of anti-sematism, simply because they gathered to openly protest the above policy and recent Zionist-Gov attack on Gaza.

Was this anti-sematism as described in the above article, certainly not, however there are a people that try silencing others who expose this evil and error, using anti-sematism as a weapon to stop others from learning uncomfortable truths. Americans need become better informed, asking why US Corp-Media do not inform them of issues perhaps uncomfortable to some for personal reasons.

[The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker]

06:29 PM on 06/11/2009

http://www.firearmscoalition.org/images/news/miac-militia-2009.pdf

Seems pointless to support or trash a document without reading it first.

[StillAmused]

05:29 PM on 06/11/2009

The GOP was much, MUCH happier with Junior's DHS... the one that chewed its fingernails while New Orleans drowned ("You're doing a great job, Brownie!").

These kinds of thoughtful, prescient warnings -- on the other hand -- will NOT be tolerated.

Sheeeeit... everyone knows the 'real' terr'ists are them there furriners.

[SmolderingRuin]

05:16 PM on 06/11/2009

Not only is Janet Napo litano completely vindicated, but the finger is finally pointing straight at the far-right hat ers who form the base of the republican party; the ones who, goaded on by pal in at her rabble-filled rallies, shouted "K ill him" about then-candidate Ba rack Ob ama, the ones who get away with urging the far-right religious nuts to mur der "baby-kil lers"- o'reilly, limbaugh, beck, hannity, palin, gingrich, and the other republican hat e mongers and viole nce-inciting right-wingers who have been getting a pass from the media for years now.

[DeWayne]

09:03 PM on 06/11/2009

I have spent much of my professional life trying to point out that working an the symptom of a problem, at the exclusion of the problem, is at best often nothing more than making the problem harder to resolve.

The issue also in calling this mentally delusional act as anti-semitism is devoid of any common sense. In point of fact there are very serious problems sidetracked with this 'anti sematism' weapons, as very often is found when this charge and statement is made.

I would rather my taxes paid for a Holocaust Museum displaying the atrocity of war, than paying for a War-Wall that is a gravestone often glorified by the Military/Industrial complex to obtain more cannon fodder, or be all that you can be... all over a battlefield of a previous cold-war asset.

[writerroz]

04:55 PM on 06/11/2009

I think we have seen plenty of hate mongering as was done by the McCain political campaign and even more stepped up after he took in Palin. Many of us received the hate mail that they were sending out against Barack Obama, and heard the hateful messages spoken at Palin rallies, so the Republicans, along with O'Reilly and Limbaugh need to admit they were wrong and STOP the hate language and mailings which should NOT be a part of any political campaign or any media message.
They can't deny the effect they were expecting when they sent out mailings accusing Obama of being a(bad) Muslim and everything from killing babies to cohorting with killers or bad element. I'm still shuddering from the kind of hate and lies they sent out about Barack Obama, and there is no way any of the Republicans can deny that they were soliciting hate and what hate produces,

After experiencing the Republicans at their worst during elections, I find it easy to believe that Steele & Limbaugh would try to turn a report from Homeland Security into an attack on the Republicans instead of working to help secure all in public life or in public places from those who take their hate a step further. Hate in itself is not a crime, but it is a crime when it is incited and encouraged to be carried further. If Republicans were feeling the heat on themselves, they deserved it, and they know what they were doing.

[DeWayne]

09:34 PM on 06/11/2009

The above is an excellent example of mentioning problems, as though there were not already (many laws) specific to the prevention of such acts and conditions.

What happens when; after the fact, Americans are made known of the errors and criminal activities being mentioned, was George Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld plus other brough before Fed-Court and trail for criminal acts already against the law.

Is slander the same as lying to the US Congress, US citizens, and the United Nations to begin a preplanned war based upon manufactured evidences against another nation? No, freedom of speach is one thing, breaking Federal and International law is quite another. And if some cannot tell the difference, hopefully there are enough with common sence a ethic that can explain it to them.

[Richard Hunter]

02:26 PM on 06/11/2009

Michael Steele's comments courtesy of The Condoleeza Rice School Of Memo Acknowledgement...

[DeWayne]

08:07 PM on 06/12/2009

Condolezza Rice is an excellent example of insidious people and their delusional perceptions of ethics and morals, in this case with her stated "We do not torture."

It is certainly a select group that can within back rooms decide that "Severe Rendition" may somehow legitimize torture if called by this other name. Or that by so agreeing upon this delusion, it is not a lie to say "we do not torture."

Certainly also there are some that would find such delusions as acceptable, certainly they would be the first to say, "they came first for the.... but I was not a ...."

[ohiodem250]

12:36 PM on 06/11/2009

While this incident, coupled with the Tiller murder and the tenor of the McCain-Palin rallies, as well as the "birther" movement, etc is disturbing; I do not believe the Federal government can do much more in the way of preventing one-off tragedies like this without significantly hampering individual rights and civil liberties. Only a cultural movement can cure the demons that drive these people.

[ladyoftheisland]

10:07 AM on 06/11/2009

Republicans aren't the bad guys, a whacky far right group is.

Prior to 4/15 and the Tea Parties I called right wing radio "hate radio" but now I'm calling it "far-right" because "hate" is too accurate. The callers are frightening, it began before the election when they were feeling the turn, said it before, will say it again, Sarah Palin was on that ticket because she a stunning gun-toting woman who could motivate the bigots who hated Obama but couldn't get themselves off the couch to vote for John McCain.

[DeWayne]

08:17 PM on 06/12/2009

By saying "Conservatives are not the bad guys", are you referring to the Project for the New American Century radicals, that stated by Cheney within their PNAC-webpage (of same name), "Conservatives failed to do this... Conservatives failed to do that... and Conservatives failed also.... BUT WE AIM TO CHANGE THIS."?

If so I totally agree, the Conservatives began in 1998-9 running a Presidential candidate named John McCain, not a PNAC "WE AIM TO" called Bush.

[AnnfromCA]

10:00 AM on 06/11/2009

There was also the left-wing killing, too. The real criticism of that report was not about the identification of right and left wing groups; it was about the issue of identifying returning veterans.

[qdog112]

07:14 PM on 06/11/2009

"it was about the issue of identifying returning veterans."

No surprise - you are wrong. Common sense tells you that the "arms experts" of the wacko groups are veterans with arms experience. That is just fact. There are reports of extremists in the ranks that you should read. You will find that many of the "experts" enter the military for the sole purpose of getting trained for the wacko groups that you defend.

The report was on point.

[stopplaying]

09:39 AM on 06/11/2009

Will they please let Michael Steele make his statement at Stephen Johns family.

[stopplaying]

09:38 AM on 06/11/2009

Will they please let Michael Steele make his statement at Stephen Johns funeral. I bet this fool wont make it out of there.

[lesterbud]

08:58 AM on 06/11/2009

Terrorism is OK if the terrorists believe the way you do.

Before you start waving the flag and thumping your Bibles at me, I am not saying these fringe, nut-jobs were specifically incited by any one persons' rhetoric or one groups' dogma. I am saying that the NeoCon, Evangelist, Conspirationist and Racist dialog from their media hacks has been escalating in recent times. They have been beaten on many fronts, lost hold of much of their sway at the higher levels of government and continue to lose appeal and recruitment ability among moderates. Their numbers are shrinking to a concentrated mass of frenetic hatred looking for outlets. They have been shown to be wrong-minded in so many ways that they are feeling like they have been backed into a corner and their sordid belief structure peeled away from them.
Like any mindless animal in such a situation, they have become collectively more dangerous. They satart feeling their only tools for exerting control and bolstering their beliefs is violence.
The same was true but from the radical left side during the 60's and 70's. Conservatives controlled the power and the more fringe liberal groups sometimes resorted to violent expressions to get attention for their ideals.

[DeWayne]

09:49 PM on 06/11/2009

I've heard that history is often written by the victor, and from what research has turned up often in direct opposition to accepted history, this concept or explanation has ample evidence to back it up.
It bothers me that much complaint of the secular world in charges against Christianity, to often has validity concerning many churches. If there exists any good to be found in this, it would be that the Bible forewarned of false teacher and prophet long ago.
To the secular I still caution about finding anything positive that will result.

[Kevbo68]

08:52 AM on 06/11/2009

If you want to help stop terrorism/right-wing extremism in America, urge our government to charge FOX News with incitement to riot and reckless endangerment. They must be stopped from profiting from fear and violence.

Failing that, tell their advertisers what you think.

The right to free speech ends when it endangers people.

[coastalcarla]

08:52 AM on 06/11/2009

Considering there are 300 million people in the US, I don't see how anyone can claim that the truly crazy actions of the few that have taken the law into their own hands lately can be blamed on an entire party. That's just as bad as when FOX claims anything about "liberals". There are nut cases in both parties. But the rhetoric being spewed by the right by Limbaugh and FOX do seem to be making the nuttiest of the right come crawling out of the woodwork in recent past. I think they should keep that in mind when they air rantings like Glenn Beck's or O'Reilly's - they're viewers seem to find it harder to discern entertainment from reality.

You have to admit that Obama had a point, though. Every extreme right person I know (and I know quite a few) truly do cling to their guns and their bibles. And their narrow view of the world makes it easier for them to justify using both as weapons against what they percieve to be people out to ruin "their" world, as they know it.

[DeWayne]

08:26 PM on 06/12/2009

Thank you, as a Christian I would like to add. Find teaching for individuals to murder an abortion Dr., or murder innocent people in a Holocaust Museum, as something that actually exists (in full context proven) within the Bible or the Quran, and you will have found something I could not find after considerable research and study.

[Rogan]

07:59 AM on 06/14/2009

You're full of it. The Bible and the Koran both encourage the murdering of heretics and unbelievers, over, and over, and over. In his book The End of Faith, Sam Harris picks the relevant quotes out of the Koran: laid end to end, they run three long pages, something like forty separate citations, each of which directly and literally exhorts the reader to kill other people. (The Bible is behind - there are only half-a-dozen such quotations, from the Bible.)

Why do you Christians always insist on blatantly lying? You're just poisoning the dialogue. And every time I see or hear a lie from a Christian, I trust Christians, as a group, even less.

[Franchise 551]

08:36 AM on 06/11/2009

Obama had an unspecific report of potential far-right wing violence, and did NOTHING to stop this?????

[DeWayne]

08:28 PM on 06/12/2009

Franchise 551,
Thank you, that was an excellent example of a delusional thought process.