Under the cover of concern about continuing terrorist acts on American soil, the Obama administration, from its beginning, has tried to use the power of federal government agencies to monitor and intimidate Americans opposed to its policies and programs.
A secret threat assessment, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” was distributed by Obama’s Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, to more than 850,000 U.S. state and local law enforcement officers in April 2009.
The assessment warned of the rise of “Neo-Nazis” and “militias,” a warning that some see as valid today in light of the Sikh temple massacre in Wisconsin. But the language went way beyond warning about violent hate groups.
The secret assessment also branded political opponents of the policies of the new Obama administration as “rightwing extremists,” defined as any American “antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms and use.”
The assessment advised “intense scrutiny” by “our state and local [law enforcement] partners” of anyone who disagreed with Obama on amnesty for illegals, greater dependency on federal welfare programs or gun control.
The secret assessment asked these “state and local partners” to work with DHS to identify “with greater regional specificity the rise of rightwing extremism in the Unites States …” In other words, keep an eye on our political opponents.
Worse, the assessment targeted all our returning war veteran heroes as potential terrorists, potential Timothy McVeighs, even though military training does not include making fertilizer bombs.
The assessment admits that membership in “rightwing groups had declined,” but “returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.”
No examples were given; it was just a hunch.
The secret assessment was never meant for public view. I published the secret assessment in WND and at RogerHedgecock.com on April 13, 2009.
A firestorm of political backlash resulted from this disclosure, eventually forcing the DHS to retract the assessment as Americans of all political persuasions were appalled that the new “hope and change” administration would so blatantly use the DHS to intimidate political opponents.
Last week, Daryl Johnson, the DHS analyst who wrote the assessment and was an intelligence analyst with U.S. Army and DHS credentials, was interviewed by Amy Goodman as a hero at “Democracy Now.”
Johnson had left DHS to form his own consultant company in 2009. He has written a book on his experiences at DHS, which he is promoting by now claiming he left DHS because his assessment was retracted.
But Johnson also revealed more about the motivation for the assessment.
In the interview, Johnson describes how in early 2009, newly appointed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano “wanted to know what was an extremist” and whether there had been a “rise in right wing extremism and whether it was the result of the election of an African-American president and what we were going to do about it.”
Here is the very origin of the pernicious re-elect Obama theme: “Vote for Obama, or you are a racist.”
But Johnson also explodes the left’s myth about Timothy McVeigh. Asked about McVeigh’s ties to “rightwing supremacist groups,” Johnson admits there were none but McVeigh was certainly “anti-government.”
Johnson decries the public disclosure of his assessment blaming “conservative radio shock jock Roger Hedgecock” as the source of the disclosure. Johnson claims the political backlash against the assessment’s targeting of Americans opposed to the Obama agenda caused him to leave the DHS.
I am not a “jock,” either in the athletic or vinyl record sense. It’s always a “shock” when “progressives” are revealed for what they really are.
I am a patriot gladly willing to blow the whistle on the document that could have formed the basis of an American Gestapo at Obama’s DHS.
