The Shameful Right
Posted: August 8, 2012 Filed under: right wing hate grouups | Tags: Christian Terrorists, Home Grown RIght Wing Terrorists, Lone Wolf, Neo-Nazis, Paramilitary, right wing terrorism, right-wing extremists 28 CommentsI’ve been trying to wrap my mind about this issue for a few days. I remember the reaction to the DHS report released a few years back and the
Anti-Abortion activists supporting Terrorists
one briefing released in May of this year. The right went ballistic because of the profile that was given of the likely domestic terror threat. I guess it sounded a little too much or way too much like them and stuff they worship and do themselves. Let me refer to a 2009 Fox News (sic) report: “Chorus of Protest Grows Over Report Warning of Right Wing Radicalization”.
The government considers you a terrorist threat if you oppose abortion, own a gun or are a returning war veteran.
That’s what House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said Wednesday in response to a Department of Homeland Security report warning of the rise of right-wing extremist groups.
Smith, who said the report on “right-wing extremism” amounts to “political profiling,” said that DHS is “using people’s political views to assess an individual’s susceptibility to terror recruitment.” He joins a growing chorus of protest from irate conservative groups that are protesting the report’s findings.
The report, titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” released last week by DHS’ Office of Intelligence and Analysis, said while there is no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are planning acts of violence, it suggests acts of violence could come from unnamed “rightwing extremists” concerned about illegal immigration, abortion, increasing federal power and restrictions on firearms — and it singles out returning war veterans as susceptible to recruitment.
A senior Republican Judiciary Committee aide tells FOX News that the Obama administration “should immediately retract the report and apologize,” saying that according to the report, pro-lifers, anyone who lost their jobs or are one of the thousands of military veterans who have fought to prevent another 9/11 could be suspect.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano defended the report Wednesday, saying it is part of an ongoing series of assessments to provide information to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies on “violent radicalization” in the United States.
“Let me be clear: we monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States,” Napolitano said in a statement. “We don’t have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown, and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence.”
Yes. Every time we try to discuss this issue, the right’s propaganda machine starts churning and their cronies in congress start the pearl clutching and the jingoism. You can read more about this kind of thing in an article at The Atlantic called: Why Why the Reaction Is Different When the Terrorist Is White” by Conor Friedersdorf. The major difference to me is that Right Wing Republicans in this country actually encourage these groups. They try to tell us that abortion is some kind of holocaust that’s equivalent to Pearl Harbor or the actual holocaust. They scream about how bad guys could be taken down only if more people carried guns around and were prepared to shoot. They rail about how ‘evil’ our government is and how it’s everything that’s wrong with the country. They use the adjectives ‘foreign’, Muslim, ‘not American, and Kenyan born when discussing the current POTUS. They question the loyalty of state department employees and demand they be investigated as potential radical Islamic moles. They tweet obvious racial dog whistles. They say horrible things about women and imply they should be raped, beaten, or worse for not doing the ‘right’ things. Of course, these enablers don’t recognize violent, homegrown terrorist when they see them. They are a vital part of their grassroots any more. They probably see them at their rallies all the time and don’t even know or care who they are as long as the election turns out well.
Instead Wade Michael Page was the gunman.
Attacks like his are disconcerting to some white Americans for a seldom acknowledged reason. Since 9/11, many Americans have conflated terrorism with Muslims; and having done so, they’ve tolerated or supported counterterrorism policies safe in the presumption that people unlike them would bear their brunt. (If Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD sent officers beyond the boundaries of New York City to secretly spy on evangelical Christian students or Israeli students or students who own handguns the national backlash would be swift, brutal, and decisive. The revelation of secret spying on Muslim American students was mostly defended or ignored.)
In the name of counterterrorism, many Americans have given their assent to indefinite detention, the criminalization of gifts to certain charities, the extrajudicial assassination of American citizens, and a sprawling, opaque homeland security bureaucracy; many have also advocated policies like torture or racial profiling that are not presently part of official anti-terror policy.
What if white Americans were as likely as Muslims to be victimized by those policies? What if the sprawling national security bureaucracy we’ve created starts directing attention not just to Muslims and their schools and charities, but to right-wing militias and left-wing environmental groups (or folks falsely accused of being in those groups because they seem like the sort who would be)? There are already dossiers on non-Muslim extremist groups. In a post-9/11 world, Islamic terrorism has nevertheless been the overwhelming priority for law enforcement, and insofar as innocents have suffered, Muslims have been affected far more than any other identifiable group, because the bulk of the paradigm shift in law enforcement hasn’t spread beyond them.
Would that still be true if the next terrorist attack on American soil looks like Oklahoma City? How would President Obama or President Romney wield their unprecedented executive power in the aftermath of such an attack? Who would find that they’d been put on no fly lists? Whose cell phone conversations and email exchanges would be monitored without their ever knowing about it?
It ought to be self-evident that non-Muslims perpetrate terrorist attacks, and that a vanishingly small percentage of Muslims are terrorists, but those two truths aren’t widely appreciated in America.
CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen and Jennifer Rowland have followed this threat for some time. They are also speaking out again on the threat from radical right terror groups.
Militants linked to al Qaeda or inspired by jihadist ideology have carried out four terrorist attacks in the United States since September 11, which have resulted in 17 deaths. Thirteen of them were in a shooting incident at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009.
By contrast, right-wing extremists have committed at least eight lethal terrorist attacks in the United States that have resulted in the deaths of nine people since 9/11, according to data compiled by the New America Foundation.
And if, after investigation, Sunday’s attack on the Sikh temple in Wisconsin is included in this count, the death toll from right-wing terrorism in the U.S. over the past decade rises to 15.
The shooting suspect, Wade Michael Page, posed with a Nazi flag on his Facebook page and has played a prominent role in “white power” music groups. The FBI is investigating the case as a “domestic terrorist-type incident.”
A particular concern for law enforcement is the Sovereign Citizens movement, whose adherents reject all U.S. laws as well as taxation and American currency. An FBI report published in 2011 said “lone-offender sovereign-citizen extremists have killed six law enforcement officers” since 2000.
The numbers in the New America Foundation database may well understate the toll of violence from right-wing extremists. Another FBI study reported that between January 1, 2007, and October 31, 2009, white supremacists were involved in 53 acts of violence, 40 of which were assaults directed primarily at African-Americans, seven of which were murders and the rest of which were threats, arson and intimidation. Most of these were treated as racially motivated crimes rather than political acts of violence, i.e. terrorism.
In the past year, the FBI has concluded investigations into a number of right-wing extremists, in some cases securing lengthy sentences for violent plots. In December, Kevin Harpham of Spokane, Washington, was sentenced to 32 years for planting a bomb at the site of a Martin Luther King Jr. parade. City workers found the bag containing the bomb an hour before the streets filled with parade-goers.
Here’s a list from the SPLC on acts of Terror From the Right. It’s a long list. David Neiwert at C&L wrote about this last year after Norway’s mass murder by the typical lone wolf right wing nut. The article is called: “Why right-wing domestic terrorists are our big blind spot: Let’s start with the media”. Charles Pierce wrote an article with a similar theme that year at Esquire Magazine. It’s about how the media basically spent very little time on that parade bomber. Perhaps, it’s because we haven’t had a horrific body count since the Oklahoma Bombing.
At the beginning of this year, not long after they’d found the bomb on the bench in Spokane, a journalist named David Neiwert put together a list of nearly thirty acts of right-wing political violence that had taken place, or had been foiled, in the United States since the summer of 2008 — or roughly since Barack Obama’s presidency began to be seen as a genuine possibility. The list began with Jim David Adkisson, who killed two people in a Unitarian church in Tennessee because he was angry at how “liberals” were “destroying America.” It included two episodes in April 2009, one in Pittsburgh and one in Florida, in which men who were sure that Barack Obama’s government was coming for their guns opened fire on law-enforcement officers who had come to investigate them on other matters.
Some of the crimes on the list were briefly sensational — Scott Roeder’s murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, or Joseph Andrew Stack’s flying his small plane into a building in Austin in protest of the Internal Revenue Service, or the incoherent array of violent crimes committed by the “Sovereign Citizens Movement.” But most of them barely made the national radar at all. In December 2008, a woman in Belfast, Maine, named Amber Cummings shot to death her sleeping husband, James, who’d been savagely abusing her. Upon arriving at the Cummings home, investigators found Nazi paraphernalia and a stash of chemicals indicating that James Cummings was preparing to make a “dirty bomb” that he planned to detonate at Obama’s inauguration. Except in the local media, that aspect of the case disappeared completely. James Cummings and his bomb had nothing to do with Scott Roeder’s handgun or Joe Stack’s airplane.
It is a fertile time for such things. The country elected a black president with an exotic name. The economy, wrecked by a rigged game at the highest levels, continued to grind through a jobless recovery. The national dialogue grows coarser and wilder, and does so at a pace accelerated by technology. People sense the fragmentation — things are falling apart — even while they take refuge in those fragments of life that seem safest and most familiar.
Still, to me, the reason is clear. Folks like Michelle Bachmann and Allan West and countless other republican elected officials, blog writers, and journalists legitimize the right wing terrorist’s extremist beefs. They use inflammatory, violent, hateful, and bigoted frames, language, and code words. I frankly think they’ve put enough ammunition and thoughts in these people’s hearts, minds, and guns that we’re going to see more of it in the days to come. We’re also going to see the correlation and possible causation between their rhetoric and the right wing terrorist’s actions poo-pooed by the right wing press and blogosphere. That, and we’ll continue to see the framing of left wing causes of environment and civil rights causes placed into equivocal boxes. These people need to be held to account and more time and money needs to be spent on paramilitary groups than tree huggers and animal fur-haters. PERIOD.
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Great post! I’ve been thinking this for quite some time.
Thanks … I think it’s evident in the way that these kinds of shootings occur. They argue about the politics of two paranoid schizophrenics but tip toe around this guy’s obvious right wing activities. They screamed all kinds of things bout the Occupy protestors. Nothing about this dude at all compares to what they said about any of them …
“they argue about the politics of two paranoid schizophrenics but tip toe around this guy’s obvious right wing activities”
Or, in the case of Pat Robertson, they blame it on “atheists”. Or, they opt to ignore this incident altogether, going on with their daily blogging as if this act of hatred never happened.
Amazing!!!
Just got a chance to read this post of your Dak. Wow. Not sure if this has been put up but from Juan Cole:
Top Ten differences between White Terrorists and Others | Informed Comment
Excellent Post Dak!!!
Thanks … people need to start standing up to the right wing. CNN should not be afraid of these people as one good example. They need to quit hiring them too as “conservative” consultants
I agree!!! All of this tip-toeing around the issues this particular shooter raises is ridiculous.
Radio Evangelist Bryan Fischer is saying this guy was a liberal because the guy hated Herman Cain. WTF????? I don’t know where Fischer got that bit of info or how he comes to that absurd conclusion. Liberals dislike Cain because he’s a neo-christofacist-rightwingnut. Bryan Fischer is Islamaphobic, homophobic, anti-contraception, anti-choice, religious zealnut who’s been throwing fuel on the flames and stoking the fires of hatred (in the name of his christian god) for decades. He’s a big part of the problem
Even worse, dak, the supposition out there now is that we may see more and more elected officials come November who share those crackpot views thanks to the efforts of Citizens United backing the Tea Party candidates.
It won’t matter if Obama manages to win if both Houses are firmly in the grip of these lunatics dragging their garbage along with them.
Even if Romney loses Obama will be a “stand alone” against the most radical nutjobs to ever be elected to public office and I am unable to imagine it being any worse than it is now. Even here in MA, a supposedly liberal state by all measures, Scott Brown is in the lead over Elizabeth Warren.
Though I can’t stand her, Claire McCaskill is behind in MO, challenged by a flaky Tea Partier who has declared that “liberals hate god”. It’s working.
I hate to say this but it looks as if the Tea Party and the fanatics who support them are gaining traction and all because of the need in 2010 to “send a message” that only managed to bring forth the Fruit Loop Brigade that has taken a firm hold on the nation.
Women, seniors, gays, healthcare, education, and the environment at a great risk if this tsunami of absurdity rolls on.
Only Soup Kitchens will see an uptick in “business” because we won’t be able to survive under these government hating crazies.
Some of the acts terrorism by the Rightwing — Repeated vandalism against Planned Parenthood and other clinics providing health care to women. An explosive device set against the door of a Congresswoman’s office.
You may have linked to the article about the man who was a staffer at homeland (in)security who got into trouble for writing a factual report about the potential for rightwing terrorism. We are far more at risk of getting in the cross fire of home grown right wing terrorists then we are from the foreigners the right wing politicians like Bachmann scream about.
We are in far more danger from the right wing nuts who want to force everyone in the US to follow their lead.
Also there are so many stories coming out of Arizona of the vigilantes who stalk and kill people coming from Mexico. There are so many back roads — and dry Riverbed running from the Mexican boarder up through Arizona — that it is easy for the haters to catch a truck load of “illegals”. So far I’ve not read about the arrest of the red-neck white vigilantes.
Since I spent about two months in that area — and we traveled some of the back roads — looking at cactus and petro glyphs — when the stories came out about all the murdered Mexicans — I started to wonder about the armed camps we saw. It is common to see people camping out in remote areas — in fact according to AZ law — this is perfectly legal. I can’t believe how dumb we were — out enjoying nature.
I count the slaughtered Mexicans looking for work as victims of right wing terrorists.
These extreme rightwing terrorists have two targets– women and “illegal” immigrants.
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/remember-report-right-wing-extremism-
“You probably remember the earsplitting wingnut screeching that greeted this man’s analysis of the threat posed to the country by right-wing extremism – a report, incidentally, commissioned by the Bush administration. (Dave Neiwert was, of course, on the case.) If only our politicians had enough spine to stand up to the predictable rantings of the armchair experts, Daryl Johnson’s important work would have continued and maybe even expanded to the point where the Wisconsin shooting could have been prevented. Via Danger Room at Wired.com:
Daryl Johnson had a sinking feeling when he started seeing TV reports on Sunday about a shooting in a Wisconsin temple. “I told my wife, ‘This is likely a hate crime perpetrated by a white supremacist who may have had military experience,’” Johnson recalls.”
Thanks, Dak. I often peruse the SPLC myself and have found their “Hate Map” to be a useful tool:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map
There are so many ways we can get screwed this year. That’s why I decided to try and highlight the Emily’s List and Peace Action West candidates. This election isn’t about presidents; it’s about slow death.
Great post, Dak.
In addition to the SPLC, the Anti-Defamation League does an excellent job monitoring hate groups. On the left-hand side of the ADL homepage, click on “Extremism” for detailed information on extremist groups and their activities:
http://www.adl.org
I think the Shooter from Wisconsin was on both of their lists.
Yes, it is hard to be a Jewish person and be deluded about the dangers of right-wing terrorism from white people.
The endless fascination by a number of Europeans and Americans with Adolph Hitler and the Nazi legacy is bone chilling. It just seems like lunacy but a dangerous and disturbed. I’m glad there are groups that follow this people and try to keep it up there in the public eye. Otherwise, I don’t think any one would believe it.
Considering the past, I would certainly hope that was the case. Hi Madamab!
SPLC does great work. I’ve been a member/donor for years.
Check it out and sign up for their e-news.
http://www.splcenter.org/
Dak, thanks for this terrific post. If only the mainstream media had the courage to headline this topic. NPR interviewed a leader from the SPLC eariler this week who said that Page had been on their watch list for about 10 years. Here’s a link to a page of stories NPR has run recently: http://www.npr.org/search/index.php?searchinput=sOUTHERN+POVERTY+LAW+CENTER
This story, in particular, is an important read. Pete Simi, a criminology professor at the University of Nebraska, Omaha had interviewed Page for the book he co-authored, American Swastika. Here’s a portion of the story:
Here’s the link to the full story: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/08/158443990/researcher-temple-gunman-said-military-experience-drove-him-to-hate
He was interviewed today on CNN. I got my first masters at that UNO. He took the place of a really good friend of mine in that program that did research on similar things.
He was actually at Fort Bragg, which has been one of the centers of Neo-Nazi activity and recruitment in the military. There was a crackdown and Congressional hearings about 10 years ago when a Neo-Nazi gang in the 82nd Airborne murdered two civilians in a hate crime and were discovered to be stockpiling weapons and funneling them to hate groups. But with the wars and the recruitment numbers being so low andf PR being the priority, the Army has been turning a blind eye to it. The least we could do is ensure that neo-Nazis are not getting Special Forces training on our dime! It’s an absolutely absurd state of affairs and plenty of people understand the extent of it. The SPLC monitors tons of active-duty personnel, both here and overseas, posting on hate sites and discussing recruitment strategies. It’s a situation where we’ve identified the problem, no one could possibly object to taking immediate and strong action on it, it’s our complete and total responsibility to act, and still we’re not doing enough.
Thank you Seriously, as always. Great comment.
There was a case a couple of years ago, I don’t think it was at Bragg, maybe at Fort Lewis or Fort Hood, where one of the commanders was caught helping neo-Nazis cover up their tattoos with make-up so they could join up instead of sending them on their way, remember that? This stuff is egregious and we’re setting up an incredibly dangerous situation for everyone, here and abroad. It’s mind-blowing that there’s hate graffiti in Baghdad courtesy of the freakin’ US Army.
Wow, seriously–i don’t think i heard that one. we are so f’d
When my dad was in the military in WWII it was the other way around. Many went in as ignorant racists and came out understanding that we are all the same. Maybe that’s a result of the all-volunteer military?
Although this is OT, I think it’s an important & truly disturbing piece from NPR today – an interview with David Barton. This guy is, IMHO, truly one of the most frightening people on the planet. Here’s an excerpt:
The full story is here: http://www.npr.org/2012/08/08/157754542/the-most-influential-evangelist-youve-never-heard-of
Excellent post, Dak. I’ve been thinking a lot about this today also. It never ceases to amaze me how right wingers reflexively defend these Neo-Nazi terrorists.
Here’s another example of how humor-challenged Republicans are.
That got a big laugh from the crowd.
Maybe I’ve just been paying more attention but it seems the right, including the “Hillary loving right”, has been getting crazier as the election approaches. Maybe it’s because prospects for Rmoney don’t look so good now?