DHS Report: Rightwing Extremism

[bourbon]

New Border Fear: Violence by a Rogue Militia, by Jesse McKinley and Malia Wollan. The New York Times, June 26, 2009.

The three people arrested in the crime include the leader of Minutemen American Defense, a Washington State-based offshoot of the Minutemen movement, in which citizens roam the border looking for people crossing into the country illegally. Former members describe the group’s leader, Shawna Forde, 41, as having anti-immigrant sentiments that are extreme, at times frightening, even to people accustomed to hard-line views on border policing.

The authorities say that the three suspects were after money and drugs that they intended to use to finance vigilantism, and that members of the group may have been involved in at least one other home invasion, in California.

Woman held in 2 slayings an outcast, activists say: But Shawna Forde had high-level contacts in Minuteman movement despite extreme views, by Tim Steller. Arizona Daily Star, June 28, 2009.

In 2007, Forde applied to join Simcox's group, Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and was allowed in on a probationary basis, said group Vice President Al Garza and founder Simcox, who left the group this year to run for the U.S. Senate. The group vetted her through interviews and a background check, members said.

"Within a few weeks, she was so assertive, wanting to take charge and wanting to be a spokesperson," Simcox said.

"She lasted less than six months. After that, she went and tried other groups," he said. "She thrust herself into the movement where no one else wanted her."

"It's a hodgepodge of folks"

The world she entered is a set of individuals and groups, many using the word "Minuteman" in their name, many harboring hostilities with each other. They share an interest in stopping illegal immigration.

A bad article by the NYT imo, the Star article has more detail. The Times headline seems sensationalistic at this point, we'll see where this goes.

[bourbon]

READY TO REVOLT: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States - Group asks police and military to lay down arms in response to orders deemed unlawful, by Alan Maimon. Las Vegas Review-Journal, Oct. 18, 2009.

Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia.

In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find.

Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution.

More specifically, the group's members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities. By refusing the latter order, the Oath Keepers hope to prevent cities from becoming "giant concentration camps," a scenario the 44-year-old Rhodes says he can envision happening in the coming years.

I’m scratching my head about this one. Not sure if this is the appropriate thread to post it, had never heard of this group.

[Hacksaw]

Seems each side has the same take when the opposite is in the driver seat.

[jmm99]

from Hacksaw
Seems each side has the same take when the opposite is in the driver seat.

.........................

I'm trying to be as succinct as you - that is difficult for me.

Mike

[bourbon]

Oath Keepers and the Age of Treason, by Justine Sharrock. Mother Jones, March/April 2010.

Glenn Beck loves them. Tea Partiers court them. Congressmen listen to them. Meet the fast-growing "patriot" group that's recruiting soldiers to resist the Obama administration.

It's not hard to see the appeal of Oath Keepers for guys like Pray and Brandon, frustrated young men nervous about their future prospects. They signed up to defend the greatest country in the world, only to be cast aside. Even their injuries were suffered ingloriously. Brandon can't sit for long after being flung from a pickup truck; Pray now walks with a cane, possibly for good. The men sincerely believe their country is headed for disaster, but as broken warriors they are powerless to do anything about it. They have tried writing to Congress, signing petitions, and voting, all to no avail. Oath Keepers offers a new sense of pride and comradeship—of being part of something momentous.

Note: This article is from a left-wing liberal/progressive publication, and as such an innate bias can be expected. Though I believe the author makes a decent attempt at impartiality, ymmv.

[bourbon]

The Secret World of Extreme Militias, by Barton Gellman. Time, 30 September 2010.

As militias go, the Ohio Defense Force is on the moderate side. Scores of armed antigovernment groups, some of them far more radical, have formed or been revived during the Obama years, according to law-enforcement agencies and outside watchdogs. A six-month TIME investigation reveals that recruiting, planning, training and explicit calls for a shooting war are on the rise, as are criminal investigations by the FBI and state authorities. Readier for bloodshed than at any time since at least the confrontations in the 1990s in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, the radical right has raised the threat level against the President and other government targets. With violence already up on a modest scale, FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and state agencies point to two main dangers of a mass-casualty attack: that a group of armed radicals will strike out in perceived self-defense, or that a lone wolf, trained and indoctrinated for war, will grow tired of waiting. Even the most outspoken militia commanders worry about the latter scenario. Kevin Terrell, a self-described colonel who founded a group of "freedom fighters" in Kentucky and predicts war with "the jackbooted thugs" of Washington within a year, says he has to fend off hotheads who call him a "keyboard commando." Some are ejected from his group, he says, and others are willing to wait a little longer. "You have to have the right fuel-air mixture, the piston has to be in the right position, the spark has to be perfectly timed," he says. "The day will come — sooner than later."

The article provides more details on two recent incidents:

- Reveals that in the 10 June 2009 shooting of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the intended target was White House senior adviser David Axelrod.

- A lone-wolf’s planned radiological dispersal device attack on the Presidential Inauguration was a credible threat. The suspect had acquired radioactive samples, was manufacturing TATP, and had significant financial resources.

[davidbfpo]

Note: copied here from a current August 2012 thread on Lone Wolves.

In the previous post I referred to a 2009 DHS report on Right Wing Extremism, today I found an interview of the lead analyst involved from the summer of 2011, which after recent events makes interesting reading for a non-American.

It ends with:

What worries me is the fact that our country is under attack from within, from our own radical citizenry. There have been a lot of small-scale attacks lately, whether it's three mail bombs sent to U.S. government facilities in Maryland and D.C., or a backpack bomb placed near a [Martin Luther King Jr. Day] parade in Spokane, Wash., or two police officers gunned down at a traffic stop in West Memphis, Ark., [by antigovernment extremists in May 2010].

These incidents are starting to add up. Yet our legislators, politicians and national leaders don't appear too concerned about this. So, my greatest fear is that domestic extremists in this country will somehow become emboldened to the point of carrying out a mass-casualty attack, because they perceive that no one is being vigilant about the threat from within. That is what keeps me up at night.

Link:http://www.splcenter.org/get-informe...s-agency-bowed

I am aware of the role of the SPLC.

[Fuchs]

"Peter King Must Go"
BY SAHIL BHATIA | AUGUST 10, 2012
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...r_king_must_go

In the wake of Sunday's deadly attack on American Sikh worshippers in Wisconsin by a white supremacist gunman, it's time for Washington to reframe its debate about fighting terrorism to address all its forms. But before that can happen, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) must step down from his position as chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

The now-obvious truth is that King, known as Congress's iron-fisted champion of all things security in this frightening post-9/11 era is, in actuality, soft on terrorism -- at least where it counts. Since his tenure as chairman began in 2011, he has repeatedly refused to devote serious attention to the threats posed by white supremacist groups and right-wing extremism, opting instead to focus nearly all of his committee's time and resources to Muslim extremism, a statistically minimal threat by comparison.

(...)

[tequila]

Prosecutor: GA murder case uncovers terror plot

LUDOWICI, Ga. (AP) -- Four Army soldiers based in southeast Georgia killed a former comrade and his girlfriend to protect an anarchist militia group they formed that stockpiled assault weapons and plotted a range of anti-government attacks, prosecutors told a judge Monday.

Prosecutors in rural Long County, near the sprawling Army post Fort Stewart, said the militia group of active and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components. They allege the group was serious enough to kill two people - former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York - by shooting them in the woods last December in order to keep its plans secret.

"This domestic terrorist organization did not simply plan and talk," prosecutor Isabel Pauley told a Superior Court judge. "Prior to the murders in this case, the group took action. Evidence shows the group possessed the knowledge, means and motive to carry out their plans."

One of the Fort Stewart soldiers charged in the case, Pfc. Michael Burnett, also gave testimony that backed up many of the assertions made by prosecutors. The 26-year-old soldier pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges. He made a deal to cooperate with prosecutors against the three other soldiers ...

The prosecutor said the militia group had big plans. It plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said. In Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state's apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia's goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president ...

This crew sounds unhinged, but they were apparently quite willing to commit murder before their plots even got off the ground.

[davidbfpo]

The article's full title:

The benefits of hindsight....The need for more monitoring of domestic terrorism

Noted via Twitter today, it appeared on the 18th August, starting with this 2009 DHS report and ends pithily:

..talking about right-wing extremist threatens howls of protest. Nice idea, shame about the politics.

Link:http://www.economist.com/node/215605...s_of_hindsight

The comments illustrate the difficulty in this area of public safety policy and in IMHO are not worth reading in total.