ciregg222

Feds Warn of Right-Wing Extremists
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, AP

WASHINGTON (April 15) - Homeland Security officials are warning that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country's first black president to recruit members to their cause.

In an intelligence assessment issued to law enforcement last week, Homeland Security officials said there was no specific information about an attack in the works by right-wing extremists.


The agency warns that an extended economic downturn with real estate foreclosures, unemployment and an inability to obtain credit could foster an environment for extremists to recruit members who may not have been supportive of these causes in the past.

Homeland Security spokesman Sean Smith said the report is one in a series of assessments issued by the agency's intelligence and analysis unit. The agency describes these assessments as part of a series published "to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States."
In February, the department issued a report to law enforcement that said left-wing extremist groups were likely to use cyber attacks more often in the next 10 years to further their cause. And in September, the agency issued a report that highlighted how right-wing extremists over the past five years have used the immigration debate as a recruiting tool.

The latest assessment started making its way into the mainstream press after conservative blogs got wind of the analysis. In this report, the agency warns that imposing new restrictions on firearms and returning military veterans who have difficulties assimilating back into their communities could lead to terror groups or individuals attempting to carry out attacks. The returning war veterans have skills and experience that are appealing to right-wing groups looking to carry out an attack, according to the report.

The agency cites the April 4 killings of three Pittsburgh police officers as an example of a the type of violence spurred by right-wing rhetoric.
"Despite similarities to the climate of the 1990s, the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years," the report said.
In the 1990s, the report said, a resurgence in right-wing extremism was brought on by the poor economy and the outsourcing of jobs, with extremist groups targeting government facilities, law enforcement officers and banks.

The growth was slowed after intense government scrutiny of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings, according to the report, but the Internet now gives extremists more access to information about making bombs and weapons training. The new technologies also make it easier for extremists to communicate, the report said, and make it more difficult for law enforcement to detect or prevent an attack.

In November, after Barack Obama's election, law enforcement officials were seeing more threats and unusual interest against a president-elect than ever before.
One of the most popular white supremacist Web sites got more than 2,000 new members the day after the election, compared with 91 new members on Election Day, according to an Associated Press count. The site, stormfront.org, was temporarily off-line Nov. 5 because of the overwhelming amount of activity it received after Election Day.


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ciregg222

Yay !! Lets use "Homeland Security" against American citizens who are seeking the use of our original Constitution. Who needs freedom anyway !! (sarcasm)


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Vicki

I saw this story on CNN. Something about a surge in gun sales equates to a supremist uprising? At least that is what it seemed like they were saying. I couldn't figure out what a surge in gun sales had to do with supremist groups. Regular people don't buy guns?

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Buzzby

I buy guns to protect myself and my family against wacko vigilante Right Wing nut-jobs.

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Yotabeater

Ditto. Lol. The Right Wing is absolutely chock full of retards, racists, and religious sheep, and they unfortunately have most of the guns as well, so I would say that is a threat to national security. No doubt.

troublemaker_42

This is what happens when you give the government unprecendented power to go after "terrorists". When its convienient for them to do so, the government will simply label you as a threat to national security, and nullify your rights. So many Americans were "OK" with the Patriot Act, as it applied, in their eyes, only to terrorists. Little did they know, 8 years later, the government would be in the beginning stages of labeling Christian gun owners who don't embrace Barack Obama or the liberal left as potential "terrorists". Its fucking absurd, and insulting, espeically when the very people we employ as a nation to protect us and our freedoms...military personell....are considered to be little different than the terrorists they risked their lives fighting.......AGAINST? Doesn't that seem a bit...asinine...to anyone else?


Bush was indeed a moron, but with shit like this coming out of the newly "changed" government, I'm not holding my breath on this administration being any better. So far, Obama and his minions have dissed the entire marijuana law reform movement, doubled our naitonal debt, labeled military vets as potential terrorists, and have proposed to change our gun laws in order to reduce Mexico's crime issues. He has bailed out the very companies responsible for our economic disaster, and pressured Congress to sign a spending bill very few, if any, of them had time to even read. Change you can believe in? Well, its a change....now we simply havce a different face lying to our nation and taking aim at our rights.

Yeah, they do Vicki, but that premise doesn't feed into the fearmongering this report is trying to give voice to. If people are buying guns, it can't be for any other reason than we have a African American Preisdent that scares the blue states. It can't have anything to do with threats of more restricitve gun laws, an economic meltdown, or the fact people want a means to protect themselves in a time of uncertainty. If you've purchased firearms since the election, you HAVE to be a milita member who wants to now join the KKK because we have a president with darker skin There seems to be a trend with newly released govt reports since the election. Between this and the report out of the Missouri Fusion center ( 'Fusion Centers' Expand Criteria to Identify Militia Members - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com ) , which held many of the same premises, anyone right of center must want revolution by any means necessary. Its nothing more than a leftist governemnt trying to demonize anyone who is against it. I find it scary that this administration feels so threatened by the right that it must demonize it at every turn. Its as if they are attempting to scare people out of ever taking a stand on issues, becasue, if you DO take a stand about something you strongly believe in, and disagree with the government about, you are instantly labeled as a potential terrorist. Is that what we've come down to as a country? That anyone using their 1st Amendment rights is instantly questionable and potentially dangerous? That seems to be the trend, and it sickens me as an American to see this happening.


Thats nice and all Buzzby, but what does YOUR buying motivation have to do with the "regular people" Vicki was referring to No offense there Buzzby.. .. it was a joke meant to keep me from responding to the drivel directly above my post. Its nice to see that ignornace knows no bounds, and can be found both left and right of center!!!!!

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If total government control equals safety, why are prisons so dangerous?

TheQuestionMark

leave please

dont even know what to say...I do hate Obama tho


[Mod Note: Please use the edit button instead of turbo posting.]

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Hashishi

Wow are you guys reading too much into this. Anybody heard of Timothy McVeigh?

The DHS receives funding based on its ability to assess threats. This report was an assessment of such a threat. Considering the sort of backlash it's had within the right wing blogosphere it's incredible that people are interpeting this as a PR initiative. That's flagrantly not the case.

Saying that an infringement on your rights to own guns could increase the prevalence of extremism is a world apart from condemning gun owners as extremists. All this report appears to be doing is to highlight social misgivings (such as the economic crisis, gun rights, abortion etcetera) as potential flashpoints for extremism and civil unrest. Does anybody here debate the possibility that gun regulations are a potential flashpoint for extremism and civil unrest? What seems to me to have occurred in this scenario is that the right wing blogosphere has created this kerfuffle and that the main stream press has seized upon their angle because of precisesly the sort of reaction people have been displaying in this thread.

The US isn't alone, either. Governments from around the world have been pointing out that the economic downturn, the perception of multiculturalism and Islamo-fascism etcetera are all fertile ground for the development of right wing extremism.

Bullshit! For a start, they've obviously reporting on intelligence as they're citing operations dating back to the Oklahoma bombings.

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LowRider

timithy Mc Veigh was the only right-wing extremist that the US has seen. Hell theres more LEFT WING EXTRIMIST OUT there than there are of right wing.

troublemaker_42

I sure have....and how many other US servicemen have become domestic terrorists? One man does not a profile make. A single act, by one man, several years ago, doesn't warrant the widescale labeling of ex-military people as potential right-wing terrorists. If Tim McVeigh is a spokesman for the overall mindset of returning vets, we might as well go to Osama Bin Laden anytime we want an offical "intelligence" profile of the state of Isalm.