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Homeland Security’s outrageous insult to veterans, conservatives and firearms owners
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A controversial nine-page “assessment” issued earlier this month by the Department of Homeland Security (DSH) was like gasoline on a fire, as already-angry taxpayers have now been essentially linked at the hip to white supremacists and “violent antigovernment groups.”
The report made headlines in the Washington Times, and the ensuing controversy was also covered by Reuters and WorldNetDaily.
The DHS document, titled Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment has outraged people who don’t even own firearms, but who do advocate smaller government, and criticize government intrusion into their personal lives. It appeared on the heels of another controversial document issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center that linked Libertarians to the militia movement. Release of that report, and the angry public reaction to it, caused the removal of the director of that agency.
"The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergency of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.
This DHS report – which used the term “rightwing extremists” 26 times, as if to pound the term into the vocabulary of everyone who was initially supposed to have read this document – is the kind of fear mongering that the Left has traditionally blamed on people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others with whom it disagrees. It was prepared by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), and its existence has people wondering just what kind of agency is being run by Janet Napolitano, former anti-gun Arizona governor who once worked in the Clinton Justice Department.
It is steeped in alarmist rhetoric: “Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.”
My colleague, David Codrea, offered his perspective on the report, which is now making the rounds on Internet chat forums.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the Bellevue-based gun rights organization, has demanded an apology to veterans, conservatives and gun owners from Napolitano and the Obama administration. He sees this document as a not-so-subtle attempt by the administration to stifle dissent by silencing, or at least marginalizing and demonizing those who disagree with the Obama agenda.
“Proposed imposition of firearms restrictions and weapons bans likely would attract new members into the ranks of rightwing extremist groups, as well as potentially spur some of them to begin planning and training for violence against the government. The high volume of purchases and stockpiling of weapons and ammunition by rightwing extremists in anticipation of restrictions and bans in some parts of the country continue to be a primary concern to law enforcement.
“I guess the phrase ‘dissent is patriotic’ has now disappeared from the liberal lexicon,” Gottlieb told me during an interview for Gun Week.
This “assessment” is an Us-against-Them manifesto that clearly demonstrates paranoia, alright; paranoia on the part of the Department of Homeland Security. It is an alarming document that goes beyond merely suggesting that citizens who have fought for this country, who defend an important civil right to keep and bear arms, and those who seek to limit government as the Founders envisioned, are enemies of the state.
Perhaps not coincidentally, a recent e-mail from a pal now working in Iraq brought home an interesting contrast. The message contained two boxes with quotes, one from Thomas Jefferson, and the other from vehemently anti-gun California Congressman Henry Waxman.
In one frame, Jefferson was quoted observing: “When the Government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the Government, there is tyranny.”
The other frame enclosed Waxman’s infamous quote, “If someone is so fearful that, that they’re going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that these people have these weapons at all!”
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