Calls for the resignation of homeland security (DHS) chief Janet Napolitano are growing after the dubious sources for the now-infamous “right-wing extremism” report were revealed through a freedom of information request (FOIA).
"Janet Napolitano must resign immediately from her post at Homeland Security over this outrage," said Bill Wilson, the president of the taxpayer advocacy group Americans for Limited Government (ALG), which filed the freedom of information request shortly after the release of the DHS report. "Taking part in a deliberate intimidation campaign against the American people under the guise of protecting them is wrong. The only honorable thing for Napolitano to do is step down."
Wilson blasted the methodology used in formulating the report while his organization dismissed the source material provided by the DHS as nothing more than an afternoon surfing the Web. "Under Napolitano’s watch, government officials who were supposed to be gathering real intelligence on domestic terror threats were instead surfing the web and reading wacky websites, all to create the public perception of ‘rightwing extremism,’” Wilson explained. He also noted that the DHS used a “kook” website rather than actual evidence, and that the memo was insulting to the tens of millions who were targeted by it.
The report in question, released in April and entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," suggested that American veterans were likely terrorists, along with those who oppose abortion, gun control, lax immigration enforcement, “free trade” agreements, one world government, and even the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs. The report concluded that all of these groups should be monitored as potential terror suspects. It drew widespread criticism from groups across the political spectrum and a variety of excuses from Napolitano, who apologized and claimed it may have been issued by a “rogue” employee.
In response to the FOIA request by ALG, the DHS sent a letter and a list of sources used in compiling the report. But instead of being sourced to intelligence reports, crime analysis, or any hard data, the list referred to about 50 Internet links — sources like the discredited far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, various news reports from such bastions of journalism as the Huffington Post, and even 11 references to www.whatdoesitmean.com, an odd website that features pictures of unicorns, tarot cards, and dragons across the top.
"We expected to receive back some hard-core analysis, some data analysis, looking at crime statistics and current trends that would back up conclusions in the report," Nathan Mehrens, a news contributor to Americans for Limited Government and a former Labor Department official, told FOX News. "Instead what we got was a list of URLs to various websites, all kinds of news stories across the board."
Among other groups rallying with ALG in its demand for the ouster of Napolitano’s is Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC), an organization that favors stricter controls on immigration. It sent out a press release last week saying it was “joining the growing chorus of calls for the resignation or termination of Janet Napolitano” because the agency used “faulty“ information from “discredited left wing groups.”
"Janet Napolitano must resign or be fired by Obama,” said William Gheen, the president of ALIPAC. “If not, then all Americans can safely assume that President Barack Obama supports these highly unpopular and offensive policies.”
Gheen also noted that the targeted beliefs represent “the popular view on these issues” and that one must look back as far as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union “to find this kind of politicization of police forces now found under the Obama Presidency." He called for all federal officials to “take immediate actions to dispel public concerns about rampant taxation, gun rights, and open borders plans" and continued by saying, “we will move to call for the dissolution of the Department of Homeland Security and a return of American security matters to agencies with more checks and balances to prevent political abuse and misuse."
It is ironic that among the sources for the report were groups that used that very report to confirm their own accusations — groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center. These revelations should be a wake-up call to Americans about the true purpose of the police state currently being erected around them. Instead of actually looking for terrorists, the unconstitutional DHS is busy trying to paint regular Americans who support the Constitution as the enemy, using discredited and politicized sources to boot.
