About That DHS Report on Right-Wing Extremists

Fringe extremism is a scary, sometimes deadly reality, regardless of the ideology that creates it.

In early April, a Department of Homeland Security report detailing potential increases in right-wing extremism was made public. The report concluded that "rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues. The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment." The report also cited as potential mobilizing issues for right-wing extremism "immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use."

The DHS also cited a 2008 FBI report from the Bush administration in which the FBI's Counterterrorism Division found with "[h]igh confidence" that "[m]ilitary experience is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement as the result of recruitment campaigns by extremist groups and self-recruitment by veterans sympathetic to white supremacist causes."

For many, the report was a chilling reminder of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 by Timothy McVeigh that killed 168 American men, women, and children.

To others, namely media conservatives, the report was seen as an affront to conservatives and conservatism in general.

In the days and weeks following the release of the DHS report, conservative cable news and radio hosts, columnists, bloggers, and political pundits mounted an all-out assault on the Obama administration for, in their eyes, targeting those who disagree with his policies.

CNN's Lou Dobbs asked viewers, "Do you think a person concerned about borders and ports that are unsecured, illegal immigration, Second Amendment rights, or a returning veteran from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely or even possibly probable, as the Department of Homeland Security suggests, to be a right-wing extremist?"

Fox News' Sean Hannity said of the report, "Now if you disagree with that liberal path that President Obama's taken the country down, you may soon catch the attention of the Department of Homeland Security."

Michelle Malkin posted an entry on her conservative blog titled "Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real," writing, "[T]he piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives."

During an appearance on Fox News, conservative columnist William Kristol called the report "juvenile," saying it "reveal[ed]" that the Obama administration "think[s] about veterans" as "pathological killers." It must have slipped Kristol's mind that the DHS report drew upon a Bush-era FBI report for its conclusion on some returning "military personnel."

Responding to the report, Michael Savage, America's third-most-listened-to radio host, declared that the government was out "to take your" freedom and guns, predicting "a Reichstag fire in this country within one year."

And yet, even to conservatives often thought of as more reasonable, like MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, it was the Obama administration that was stoking fear, and worse.

This DHS report was hardly unique. In fact, just a few months earlier, on January 26, the DHS issued a similar assessment of left-wing extremism, concluding that "a number of emerging trends point to leftwing extremists maturing and expanding their cyber attack capabilities over the next decade with the aim of attacking targets in the United States."

It mattered little that similar reports on the threat of other extremist elements had been released in the past. Acknowledging the existence of such reports would be to deny the conservative chattering class yet another opportunity to stoke the fears of its audience.

Far from lumping all conservatives, liberals, and religious people in with the fringe extremist elements of which they speak, these reports are meant to warn law-enforcement agencies of potential domestic security threats.

Of late, we've seen too much evidence to ignore the threat of homegrown extremism, right-wing or otherwise.

On April 4, Richard Poplawski, a conspiracy nut who embraced radical rhetoric and, as one friend put it, feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" (no such ban is in the works) and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon," shot and killed three police officers.

On May 31, Dr. George Tiller, whose clinic legally performed late-term abortions, was shot to death as he entered his Kansas church by Scott Roeder, an anti-choice extremist. In 1985, Tiller's clinic was bombed, and in 1993, he was shot in both arms by an anti-choice activist.

On June 1, Muslim convert Abdulhakim Bledsoe, in an act of domestic terrorism, opened fire on a military recruiting center in Arkansas, killing Pvt. William Long and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula.

On June 12, James W. von Brunn, a reported white supremacist with extreme anti-government views, entered the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum with a rifle, shooting and killing a security guard while leaving another unnamed victim injured.

In the wake of these attacks, it shouldn't be too much to ask that these reports be taken seriously rather than used to score political points. Unfortunately, media conservatives seem more interested in stoking the unfounded fears of their audience -- the government is somehow out to get them -- than they are in the security and safety of the American people.

After all, a frightened audience is a captive audience.

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Karl Frisch is a Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog and research and information center based in Washington, D.C. Frisch also contributes to County Fair, a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the Web as well as original commentary. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook or sign up to receive his columns by email.

Comments

[Ohio9]

Nobody denies right wing extremism is a problem. But the DHS report went way too far and made it seem like anyone who supports any mainstream conservative cause is a potential terrorist. In that regard, the conservative criticism of the report actually has a very valid point.

[mjtaylor22]

right wingers kill people they disagree with, never really heard of that fromthe "Left" wingers"
maybe the report shoudlhave been as critical as it was, already a few murders inthe name of right winged ideology of the right.

[Ohio9]

Left wingers never kill for their cause? Get real. Have you never heard of the BLA or the Weather Underground?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brinks_robbery_(1981)

What about the guy who shot up the Arkansas recruiting station? You think he was a conservative? It doesn't seem like it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/us/03recruit.html

[GoodwithWood]

Don’t forget th church shooting in Tennessee last summer.

[JohnnyE]

>The DHS also cited a 2008 FBI report from the Bush administration in which the FBI's Counterterrorism Division found

So the Bush Administration ignored another terroristic threat. They blew it on 9/11 and now the current bloodbath. Since they had a direct line to Fox News(sic) they probably stoked it.

[andycan]

IRAN AND AMERICA: A FATEFUL SYMMETRY

In Iran and USA we see developments which are symmetrical, if considerd in their essence:
the Islamic fundamentalists steal the election in Iran; in the USA, the Protestant fundamentalists resort to violence to impose their agenda.

Under Bush-Cheney, American war fundamentalism thrived as it was confronted by the Islamist Ahmadinejad regime. Both religious fanatical compacts were feeding off each other.

As American religious fanatics prey on innocents egged on by Glenn Beck and O'Reilly, the Iranian fanatical establishment tries to crush Mir Moussavi's green revolution.

The challenge for the Obama administratration is to help societal progress in Iran, even as it fends off the brutal forces of American religious fanaticism.

[cariintexas]

i guess all the right wing talkers and their sympathizers have forgotten the last eight years. Our phone calls were listened to, our email, the books we read the merchandize we purchased and so many more things were all logged into data bases. NOW they come whining about a government take over. It is impossible to do what's already been done.

[ranchero42]

Don't know who drew the line; the Right crossed it first. Failing to understand what makes America great is it's diversity; Right wingers threaten separatism and secession but at the same time imply they ain't going anywhere. Which is it? Even if they carved out a White Enclave in the wilderness; they wouldn't really be able to stand the minimal diversity from "the Base". Boredom sets in; they eventually come back in dribs and drabs for the rush of controversy created by unrequited toddler dreams about being the center of attention. Nobody at Fox or Clear Channel seems capable of human discourse above grade school level. Here sits the Play Pen; reality lies beyond.

[ozwald888]

This is just one more example of the kind of channel fox really is. And, it ain't a news channel, that much is clear!

When the DHS report in question was released, none of the talking heads on that network even read the bloody thing, but they all had talking points laid out by their propaganda department and the RNC.

What I found most disturbing about this whine-fest from the right is that nobody in power stood up to them. Ms Napolotano even apologized for making the report that was COMMISSIONED BY THE bush ADMINISTRATION, public.

Yep, they backed down even though the report has been proven correct.

I believe some of these more recent attacks are because of the way the report was allowed to be "pulled back".

[manofmystique]

I am convinced these white TV personalities could care less about responsible jounalism, as long as Obama is in Office. This is outrageous. night after night and day after day white people are saying the dumbest things imaginable and time after time News organizations keep putting them on the Show without challenging their stupidity. This tells me they are complicit .

[djkrlsn]

The Air America hosts were far worse during the Bush administrations

[Alan Richard]

Yeah, and think of all the left wing violence perpetrated by Air America fans!! Oh wait: there wasn't any.

[expired]

A Must Read re: DHS report. I think that you might find this enlightening, at least the progressives will.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/opinion/12krugman.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[grandma58]

thanks

[MeddlingMonk]

In misrepresenting the report on right-wing extremism as an attack on conservatism, the right-wing commentators are perhaps unintentionally letting their hand show. They are not themselves extremists in the Timothy McVeigh sense, but in asserting an equivalence between right-wing extremism and 'conservatism' they are declaring themselves--however unintentionally--as being extreme; extreme in rhetoric rather than in actions, but that can be just as bad in that in provides encouragement to extreme actions.

[pikaomega]

I find this more frustrating than one could possibly imagine.

I work for a vet based, anti-war non profit with "Peace" in the name. We have been in existence since 1985 and hold fast to a philosophy of non-violence. Still, our group and countless others like us (Quakers, anyone?) have been systematically targeted over the last eight years as "extremists" and a threat to national security. I have seen the FOIA documents stating that our office has been bugged, phones tapped and emails pilfered. We mobilized Homeland Security-who, to be fair, were very kind to us given that we did not provide more warning of our presence-during a demonstration outside of a USAF base where we were doing nothing more than holding signs thanking our service man and women.

Given this, I find it appalling that the Obama administration's applicable agencies have not taken a harder line on what is a real threat to our peace and security here at home. Do not believe that this lax attitude has anything but a political motivation since, I promise you, they have all of the tools at their disposal to track this kind of menace.

[stopplaying]

I find it appalling that you want to blame the Obama administration, and it seems your group has been having problems way before Obama was in office. With you on their team I feel safer with you being watched by homeland security.

[pikaomega]

I am in no way blaming the Obama administration for the surveillance of my organization. As you pointed out, that was put into motion LONG before he took office.

The complaint that I have is directed at the security and law enforcement apparatus, based upon the real lack of foresight in dealing with the rising domestic terrorist activity on American soil. My point was that I know that there is a network of tools (some of dubious legality, the use of which I object to still) at their disposal that could be used to head this kind of thing off at the pass.

My hope stems from the fact that this is still very early in his term and that I do not doubt that the spike in violent rhetoric and action is taken very seriously. But, after Napolatino apologized for the "right-wing extremist" DHS report (commissioned by Bush), I am nervous about the politicization of calling this out for what it is and handling it as a matter of what it is...terrorism.