ALG Blasts DHS Methodology Used in "Rightwing Extremism" Memo Revealed in Freedom of Information Response by Department Americans for Limited Government Hat tip Jane) August 11th, 2009, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned the methodology used by the Department of Homeland Security in issuing a controversial “right-wing extremism” threat assessment to law enforcement in April as “complete speculation.”
“Our worst fears about what went into this memo have been confirmed. The
government department that was supposed to be tasked with identifying domestic
terrorist threats is apparently using news stories, kooky websites, and
conjecture instead of actual hard intelligence reporting and analysis,” said
Wilson.
“This is a disgrace, and calls into question what it is that the so-called
‘Extremism and Radicalizaton Branch of the Homeland Environment Threat Analysis
Division’ actually does,” Wilson added.
Americans for Limited Government filed a Freedom of Information
request in April demanding all documents related to the drafting of the
controversial “right-wing extremism” memo. It has now received an interim 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 the web-links is included here.
In a recent edition of the Clews-Todd Report, ALG top researcher Don Todd
recently gave his assessment of the memo and DHS’ FOIA interim response, “Here
you have a bunch of government bureaucrats surfing the web that come up with
this crackpot website [http://whatdoesitmean.com], and then they alert all the police agencies in the country to look out for veterans, pro-lifers, and people that
believe in states' rights.”
FOX News today exclusively reported on DHS’ response to ALG’s
freedom of information request.
“Not a single study or report was from any government source,” said Wilson.
“And again, there was no evidence of any actual active recruitment of
‘disgruntled veterans’ by these groups, no evidence showing that folks who
purchase guns or oppose gun-control legislation are necessarily dangerous, and
no evidence that the economic downturn or the election of Barack Obama that is
fueling any actual ‘resurgence’ of ‘extremism.’”
The memo had reported that “rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit
and radicalize returning veterans”.
“We already knew that the memo did not illuminate on any actual planned
attacks or any groups known to be planning attacks, or any groups with histories
of perpetrating attacks that are currently conducting any types of operational
recruitment, meeting, or planning attacks,” said Wilson.