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Octafish

(55,745 posts)
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:13 AM Nov 2015

Why Don’t We Know Much About Right-Wing Terrorists? Conservatives Fired The Guy Studying Them

Stuff to remember when wondering why the tee vee doesn't match what you know.





Why Don’t We Know Much About Right-Wing Terrorists? Conservatives Fired The Guy Studying Them

JAMESON PARKER
AddictingInfo, JUNE 18, 2015 4:41 PM

After a mass shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, left nine people dead and a right-wing white supremacist arrested, the country once again faces the uneasy question of just how many so-called “home-grown” terrorists are out there – heavily armed, ideologically driven, and violent.

It’s a good question, but it may be tough to answer because for reasons that are astoundingly dimwitted, the Department of Homeland Security pushed out the guy who was in charge of watching them, and dismantled his team all the way back in 2009.

The beleaguered hero of this story is Daryl Johnson, a top government counterterrorism analyst working at Homeland Security who spent six years with the agency amassing a wealth of data on far-right extremist groups that posed various degrees of threat to citizens in the United States. In 2009, in the months after President Obama assumed office, he watched as these groups veered even further right, and began to fear that America’s first African-American president could be the catalyst of a major uptick in hate crimes and anti-government attacks.

In a landmark report released just months into Obama’s term, and now looks downright clairvoyant, Johnson made the case that radical Islam is only a small piece of the terrorism pie:

“Do not overlook other types of terrorist groups,” the report warned, noting that five purely domestic groups had considered using weapons of mass destruction in that period. Similar warnings have been issued by the two principal non-government groups that track domestic terrorism: the New York-based Anti-Defamation League and the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.

An annual tally by the latter group of what it calls “Terror From the Right” listed 13 major incidents and arrests last year, nearly double the annual number in previous years; the group also reported the number of hate groups had topped 1,000 in 2010, for the first time in at least two decades.


In response to that report, Johnson was destroyed. It wasn’t his integrity or claims that got him in trouble, his facts were solid. Instead, it was the inconvenient truth that much of the threat comes from right-wing conservatives, and even more awkwardly, radical right-wing conservatives who say and think a lot of the same things mainstream right-wing conservatives say and think.


CONTINUED w/links...

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/06/18/why-dont-we-know-much-about-right-wing-terrorists-conservatives-fired-the-guy-studying-them/



So, yes, we have no rightwing terrorists by definition because the rightwing gets to define the defined. No, right? Right!
78 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Why Don’t We Know Much About Right-Wing Terrorists? Conservatives Fired The Guy Studying Them (Original Post) Octafish Nov 2015 OP
True.... daleanime Nov 2015 #1
Homeland Security Department curtails home-grown terror analysis Octafish Nov 2015 #3
They don't want the truth cuz they can't handle it... 2naSalit Nov 2015 #33
You know who really likes guns? NAZIs. Octafish Nov 2015 #75
...and then there areall those nutters in Congress. nt 2naSalit Nov 2015 #76
Remember Napolitano's apology ProgressiveEconomist Nov 2015 #40
Let's face it, monicaangela Nov 2015 #66
I believe the Southern Poverty Law Center has a pretty good handle on GGJohn Nov 2015 #2
So, why is there a problem? Octafish Nov 2015 #4
Possibly. GGJohn Nov 2015 #5
The traitor Oliver North planned to use Michigan Militia and others if needed in 1984. Octafish Nov 2015 #7
That, my friend, would have been the ultimate irony, GGJohn Nov 2015 #10
Right wing authoritarians are just fine with the government oppressing people ck4829 Nov 2015 #49
Which is exactly what would happen once the govt was done with them. GGJohn Nov 2015 #50
Interesting you say that. Some in the Mormon Church believe jwirr Nov 2015 #23
And indeed, how much of that had to do with absconding w/ the Hughes estate. forest444 Nov 2015 #63
Too many with guns and prepared to use them (think Bundy jwirr Nov 2015 #22
Yup - and the South was beaten into a pulp and starved to death. And yet they fought on. erronis Nov 2015 #31
those dipshits on the bridge & ranch would have been smoked faster than weed at a Grateful Dead... JanMichael Nov 2015 #56
Yes and what then are we going to do with all the supporter jwirr Nov 2015 #57
kill them. nt. JanMichael Nov 2015 #59
edit when they do something scummy shoot them. maybe use sedition laws against the provacaters? nt JanMichael Nov 2015 #60
Yeah well I don't see law enforcement breaking down Bundy's door anytime soon. Rex Nov 2015 #6
It's where the 1-percent get their best recruits. Octafish Nov 2015 #8
I dunno about the 1 percent involved in this, but it smacks of hate radio Rex Nov 2015 #12
The 1% had better watch their backs because as soon as jwirr Nov 2015 #24
Agree, they misjudged their allies in this case. Rex Nov 2015 #25
Can't help but LOL - we are definitely learning that in the ME. jwirr Nov 2015 #27
OUCH! Rex Nov 2015 #29
Unfortunately true and not one leader with the guts to get jwirr Nov 2015 #47
Who is behind supporting hate radio? Ichingcarpenter Nov 2015 #32
I know it is Rush and his fellow rich republicans. People like Glen Beck Rex Nov 2015 #51
Or LE is just too concerned of another Oklahoma type of terrorist attack, GGJohn Nov 2015 #9
I think it enboldens these type of groups when LE is soft on them. Rex Nov 2015 #11
100% agree. GGJohn Nov 2015 #13
Good to see you again, I just talked to someone else that is back as well. Rex Nov 2015 #15
Many Cops are members of these Right-Wing Reactionary groups. PeoViejo Nov 2015 #16
I agree and I believe we saw this in places like Ferguson. Rex Nov 2015 #17
Definitely way more than by coincidence, I bet. I'm astounded by the hate groups especially on RKP5637 Nov 2015 #52
Does SPLC have ProgressiveEconomist Nov 2015 #41
I've no idea, but they seem to have pretty good intelligence on the domestic terrorists GGJohn Nov 2015 #42
There is also Right Wing Watch PADemD Nov 2015 #54
Didn't know that. GGJohn Nov 2015 #55
From CNN in February 2015 Progressive dog Nov 2015 #14
That important report got lost in all the hot Benghazi air. Octafish Nov 2015 #44
FBI warns of White Supremacists infiltrating Police PeoViejo Nov 2015 #18
Lots o' Redactions Octafish Nov 2015 #53
K&R napkinz Nov 2015 #19
Right-wing Terrorist Organization Worked Within U.S. Army Octafish Nov 2015 #58
Strategy of Tension PeoViejo Nov 2015 #20
''Gladio'' And The Strategy Of Tension Octafish Nov 2015 #68
k and r nashville_brook Nov 2015 #21
Law Enforcement Assessment of the Violent Extremism Threat Octafish Nov 2015 #69
Thank You for posting this: KoKo Nov 2015 #26
Conservative Feelings Octafish Nov 2015 #70
yes..I see KoKo Nov 2015 #74
Its all 'the lone gunman ' syndrome don't you know? Ichingcarpenter Nov 2015 #28
White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis. Who knew? Octafish Nov 2015 #72
Lois Gibson Ichingcarpenter Nov 2015 #73
K&R Duval Nov 2015 #30
Pug "strategery": Don't like the message, cut off the messenger's head. Suppress, depress, lie lonestarnot Nov 2015 #34
I met a right-wing nut who claimed there is no such thing as a right-wing dictator.... Spitfire of ATJ Nov 2015 #35
I know what you mean Populist_Prole Nov 2015 #38
Not "offending" conservatives is the role of the corporate media. mountain grammy Nov 2015 #36
K&R! marym625 Nov 2015 #37
URL: List of domestic terrorist ProgressiveEconomist Nov 2015 #39
Elijah P. Lovejoy Octafish Nov 2015 #43
Domestic terrorists begat domestic terrorists. Initech Nov 2015 #45
Far Right Nuts With Weaponry colsohlibgal Nov 2015 #46
The truth must be repressed. hifiguy Nov 2015 #48
Kicked and recommended a whole bunch! Enthusiast Nov 2015 #61
You can research via Right Wing Watch, People for the American Way, & Southern Poverty Law Center... Hekate Nov 2015 #62
K&R nt raouldukelives Nov 2015 #64
Why don't we know much? monicaangela Nov 2015 #65
Shocking. Octafish Nov 2015 #71
No Octafish, monicaangela Nov 2015 #77
K&R for the original post and subsequent informative posts and links. Bookmark. JEB Nov 2015 #67
Where do they get radicalized? A baptist mosque? A pool hall? n/t jtuck004 Nov 2015 #78

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
3. Homeland Security Department curtails home-grown terror analysis
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:21 AM
Nov 2015

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post, June 7, 2011

The Department of Homeland Security has stepped back for the past two years from conducting its own intelligence and analysis of home-grown extremism, according to current and former department officials, even though law enforcement and civil rights experts have warned of rising extremist threats.

The department has cut the number of personnel studying domestic terrorism unrelated to Islam, canceled numerous state and local law enforcement briefings, and held up dissemination of nearly a dozen reports on extremist groups, the officials and others said.

The decision to reduce the department’s role was provoked by conservative criticism of an intelligence report on “Rightwing Extremism” issued four months into the Obama administration, the officials said. The report warned that the poor economy and Obama’s election could stir “violent radicalization,” but it was pilloried as an attack on conservative ideologies, including opponents of abortion and immigration.

In the two years since, the officials said, the analytical unit that produced that report has been effectively eviscerated. Much of its work — including a digest of domestic terror incidents and the distribution of definitions for terms such as “white supremacist” and “Christian Identity” — has been blocked.

Multiple current and former law enforcement officials who have regularly viewed DHS analyses said the department had not reported in depth on any domestic extremist groups since 2009.

“Strategic bulletins have been minimal, since that incident,” said Mike Sena, an intelligence official in California who presides over the National Fusion Center Association, a group of 72 federally chartered institutions in which state, local and federal officials share sensitive information. “Having analytical staff, to educate line officers on the extremists, is critical.…This is definitely one area” where more effort is warranted by DHS.

CONTINUED...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/homeland-security-department-curtails-home-grown-terror-analysis/2011/06/02/AGQEaDLH_story.html

I can understand not wanting to give these rats publicity, but when the government and the rats work together to protect the rich turds who benefit from the rats, there's a problem -- and The System.

2naSalit

(93,073 posts)
33. They don't want the truth cuz they can't handle it...
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 01:03 PM
Nov 2015

since it would expose their BS and they might be recognized as the enablers.


Congress Recently Renewed A Blanket Ban On Letting CDC Scientists Study Gun Violence

There are a lot of unknowns on how best to prevent gun violence and what the causes might be, and lawmakers who caucus with the NRA would like to keep it that way. In fact, the goal seems to be to intentionally keep the country as ignorant to solutions as possible, lest they wise up to how toxic America’s gun problem really is.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/10/03/congress-recently-renewed-a-blanket-ban-on-letting-cdc-scientists-study-gun-violence/



Octafish

(55,745 posts)
75. You know who really likes guns? NAZIs.
Mon Nov 30, 2015, 02:14 PM
Nov 2015

And that trail of bullets leads straight to the GOP of George Herbert Walker Bush and Company, the War and Money Party, what Bartcop termed the BFEE:



A Fresh Look

Nazis and the Republican Party


by Carla Binion
Bartcop.com

Investigative reporter Christopher Simpson says in BLOWBACK that after World War II, Nazi émigrés were
given CIA subsidies to build a far-right-wing power base in the U.S. These Nazis assumed prominent positions
in the Republican Party's "ethnic outreach committees." Simpson documents the fact that these Nazis did not
come to America as individuals but as part of organized groups with fascist political agendas. The Nazi agenda
did not die along with Adolf Hitler. It moved to America (or a part of it did) and joined the far right of the
Republican Party.

Simpson shows how the State Department and the CIA put high-ranking Nazis on the intelligence payroll "for
their expertise in propaganda and psychological warfare," among other purposes. The most important Nazi
employed by the U.S. was Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler's most senior eastern front military intelligence officer. After
Germany's defeat became certain, Gehlen offered the U.S. certain concessions in exchange for his own
protection. Gehlen promoted hyped up cold war propaganda on behalf of the political right in this country, and
helped shape U.S. perceptions of the cold war.

Journalist Russ Bellant (OLD NAZIS, THE NEW RIGHT, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY) shows that
Laszlo Pasztor, a convicted Nazi war collaborator, built the Republican émigré network. Pasztor, who served as
adviser to Republican Paul Weyrich, belonged to the Hungarian Arrow Cross, a group that helped liquidate
Hungary's Jews. Pasztor was founding chairman of the Republican Heritage Groups Council.

SNIP...

At a May 9, 1984 press conference, Simon Wiesenthal said, "Nazi criminals were the principal beneficiaries of
the Cold War." The cold war mentality, hyped by Reinhard Gehlen and other Nazis, became the shelter for tens
of thousands of Nazi criminals. Helping the far right in this country to promote cold war hysteria became the
Nazi war criminals "reason for being." As Christopher Simpson says, the cold war became those criminals'
means "to avoid responsibility for the murders they had committed."

Journalist Seymour Hersh says Christopher Simpson's BLOWBACK is "the ultimate book about the worst
kind of cold war thinking, in which some of our most respected statesmen made shameful decisions that they
mistakenly believed to be justified." To this day, says Simpson, the U.S. intelligence agencies hide the scope of
their post-World War II collaboration with Nazi criminals.

Are Republicans like George H. W. Bush, Oliver North, and Jesse Helms, aware they have been assisted by
Nazi collaborators? Bush once worked for the CIA and should have known about the nature of the Nazis in his
'88 campaign. No doubt he knows the history of Nazi/CIA collaboration. Whether or not Bush knew of the
fascists' involvement in his campaign, the Republican Party should have done a far better screening job. One
thing is certain: The intelligence agencies know the scope and extent of Nazi involvement with the political
right in this country. It is a shame they keep it hidden from the majority of the American people.

© 2000 Carla Binion All rights reserved

http://www.bartcop.com/nazigop.htm



That was 2000. Things have gotten a lot more NAZI since then. Think 9-11 Unsere Reichstagfeuer.

ProgressiveEconomist

(5,818 posts)
40. Remember Napolitano's apology
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 03:28 PM
Nov 2015

for the main DHS DT report Boehner and Fox "News" forced her to withdraw in 2009?

From http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/08/07/645421/right-wing-extremism/

“Republicans Blasted Obama Administration For Warning About Right-Wing Domestic Terrorism BY ANNIE-ROSE STRASSER, AUGUST 7, 2012 “The gunman in the shooting at a Sikh temple over the weekend has been labeled a potential domestic terrorist — defined as one who incites politically-motivated violence against his or her own country. In Wade Michael Page’s case, that political motivation was likely white supremacy, a growing problem in the United States. But when, in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security reported that white supremacy is the US’s biggest threat for domestic terror, it was met with harsh criticism. Conservatives blasted the department for defining terror threats too broadly, instead of focusing on potential Islamic terrorists. Then-House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) was one of those who berated DHS, saying that they weren’t focusing on the real threats the US faces: ‘The Secretary of Homeland Security owes the American people an explanation for why she has abandoned using the term ‘terrorist’ to describe those, such as al Qaeda, who are plotting overseas to kill innocent Americans, while her own Department is using the same term to describe American citizens who disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation.’ … Sec. Janet Napolitano ended up withdrawing the report and apologizing …” 

GGJohn

(9,951 posts)
2. I believe the Southern Poverty Law Center has a pretty good handle on
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:20 AM
Nov 2015

the domestic terrorists in this country and I'm quite sure they notify Homeland Security of their findings.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
7. The traitor Oliver North planned to use Michigan Militia and others if needed in 1984.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:26 AM
Nov 2015

In Ollie's day, the idea was that the Michigan Militia and a bad number more of the other right-wing paramilitary groups across the nation would be deputized to do Reagan-Bush's domestic dirty work, in the event of a "national emergency." The idea was that the government would be able to circumvent the posse comitatus laws if there were mass protests against a "hypothetical" U.S. invasion of Central American nations like El Salvador or Nicaragua. Reagan-Bush thought they might need to round up undesirables, foreigners and whoever else they designated as enemies of the state.

Rex 84: FEMA's Blueprint for Martial Law in America

http://www.globalresearch.ca/rex-84-fema-s-blueprint-for-martial-law-in-america/3010

GGJohn

(9,951 posts)
10. That, my friend, would have been the ultimate irony,
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:30 AM
Nov 2015

using a violently anti government group to do the bidding of the government.

ck4829

(36,085 posts)
49. Right wing authoritarians are just fine with the government oppressing people
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 07:41 PM
Nov 2015

It's only a problem when they perceive the oppression being turned on them.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
23. Interesting you say that. Some in the Mormon Church believe
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 12:23 PM
Nov 2015

that when the expected crash comes that they are empowered by God to be the ones to take over. I wonder how much that had to do with Mitty running for president?

forest444

(5,902 posts)
63. And indeed, how much of that had to do with absconding w/ the Hughes estate.
Mon Nov 30, 2015, 12:06 AM
Nov 2015

I mean, if I could get away with a heist like that - I might start to feel pretty full of myself too.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
22. Too many with guns and prepared to use them (think Bundy
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 12:20 PM
Nov 2015

ranch). I suspect that if we tried to round them up the south in particular would rise up again and fight back. They truly were prepared to fight off the law at the Bundy ranch and I assume that our people backed off for that reason. No one wants a civil war again even though it may take one to end this.

erronis

(16,982 posts)
31. Yup - and the South was beaten into a pulp and starved to death. And yet they fought on.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 12:49 PM
Nov 2015

This seems like a passionate embrace of death wishes and nihilism to me. But it does show how far fanatics will go to deny reason.

Daesh/ISIL === US survivalists/extremists

JanMichael

(25,279 posts)
56. those dipshits on the bridge & ranch would have been smoked faster than weed at a Grateful Dead...
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 08:59 PM
Nov 2015

...concert pre Garcia's death.

No real uprising would have happened. The gunz monkeys would be dead or arrested and i n court FOREVER and the tv watching "badassess" would be to scared to shit with the door open.

No civil war would have started. How easy would it be to track the monster RV's coming with fat lazy fake traitors on I40? They use the internet which can be tracked like a drunk on a greenway posting on twitter.

Once that asshole on the bridge aimed at federal officers he should have had a bag over his head and be shoved into a windowless van.

Then take him to Hooters and all would be fine.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
57. Yes and what then are we going to do with all the supporter
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 09:03 PM
Nov 2015

of these idiots throughout the country that will start a running war of terror against everyone who is not one of them?

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
6. Yeah well I don't see law enforcement breaking down Bundy's door anytime soon.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:25 AM
Nov 2015

We have a real problem when it comes to conservative, white fundamentalists. I guess it cuts too close to home for some, better to just ignore it and hope the problem goes away.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
8. It's where the 1-percent get their best recruits.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:27 AM
Nov 2015

You know, the kind who are big, strong and stupid.

Like Canned Heat once put it: "Remedial courses available for the culturally deprived."

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
12. I dunno about the 1 percent involved in this, but it smacks of hate radio
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:32 AM
Nov 2015

which Rushbo is part of the 1 percent...oh I see your point now.


jwirr

(39,215 posts)
24. The 1% had better watch their backs because as soon as
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 12:27 PM
Nov 2015

the paramilitary get rid of us they will go after them. The tea party has no love for the banksters.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
25. Agree, they misjudged their allies in this case.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 12:33 PM
Nov 2015

Sometimes the enemy of my enemy is NOT my friend.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
29. OUCH!
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 12:45 PM
Nov 2015

That is so true it hurts! over 5 thousand dead military professionals and we have not made a single inroad in the ME in 14 YEARS! More like 35 if we include Reagan's help overthrowing Irans secular government to be replaced by a mulah. Or even back to after WWII when we sliced and diced the ME into parts without taking into account the cultures or people living there.

I would say we've turned (with the help of other superpowers) the ME into a gigantic clusterfuck that is now raging out of control.



Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
32. Who is behind supporting hate radio?
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 12:59 PM
Nov 2015

you are just describing the speaker and a chain in the middle
not who owns and supports the ability for the speaker to speak.

Let me give you a clue its not the listener that allows it to survive.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
51. I know it is Rush and his fellow rich republicans. People like Glen Beck
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 07:49 PM
Nov 2015

and their rich supporters.

GGJohn

(9,951 posts)
9. Or LE is just too concerned of another Oklahoma type of terrorist attack,
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:28 AM
Nov 2015

which, in my view, is no excuse for not cracking down on known violent RW militias and org..
Mind you, I don't know if this is the case, I'm just speculating.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
11. I think it enboldens these type of groups when LE is soft on them.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:31 AM
Nov 2015

And I don't blame them for being worried about another McVeigh. There are probably thousands of McVeighs out there, they just haven't had the right button pushed yet.

GGJohn

(9,951 posts)
13. 100% agree.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:35 AM
Nov 2015

I'm a HUGE defender of the Constitution, but sometimes.................................

BTW, it's good to be back again.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
15. Good to see you again, I just talked to someone else that is back as well.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:39 AM
Nov 2015

Only reason (imo) I am not in timeoutland yet, is because I've stayed away from GD-P.

 

PeoViejo

(2,178 posts)
16. Many Cops are members of these Right-Wing Reactionary groups.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:47 AM
Nov 2015

...and you wonder why nothing gets done.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
17. I agree and I believe we saw this in places like Ferguson.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:49 AM
Nov 2015

Make me wonder how many cops are secretly in the KKK or part of the White Identity movement. So many crazy hate groups out there thanks to decades of Hate Radio and Foxnews.

RKP5637

(67,112 posts)
52. Definitely way more than by coincidence, I bet. I'm astounded by the hate groups especially on
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 08:01 PM
Nov 2015

radio. It's difficult to find any talk show that is not pure hatred or borders on it under the surface. A constant WTF to me. Generally my conclusion is there's big money in peddling hatred and compounded by that those that are proud of their hatred. The US is coming to a fork in the road. The wrong direction in 2016 could likely make the US a horrific place for a generation or two IMO.

GGJohn

(9,951 posts)
42. I've no idea, but they seem to have pretty good intelligence on the domestic terrorists
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 03:41 PM
Nov 2015

in this country and I'm fairly confident that any new details they learn of they pass on to the appropriate authorities.

Progressive dog

(7,261 posts)
14. From CNN in February 2015
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:39 AM
Nov 2015

"A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists and comes as the Obama administration holds a White House conference to focus efforts to fight violent extremism."

A new position for domestic terrorism was added to the DOJ in October of this year.
"Washington (CNN)Domestic terror groups pose a greater threat to America than ISIS or al Qaeda, a Justice Department official said Wednesday."

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
44. That important report got lost in all the hot Benghazi air.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 04:16 PM
Nov 2015

It isn't the enemy outside the walls that should be most feared; it's the money grubbing drunk racist rat warmonger wrapped in the flag, spewing illiberal hate, all patriotic.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
58. Right-wing Terrorist Organization Worked Within U.S. Army
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 09:04 PM
Nov 2015

By Ed Hightower
World Socialist Web Site, 15 September 2012

On Monday, prosecutors in Liberty County, Georgia indicted five men for illegal gang activity including burglaries, thefts and car break-ins, alleging they were all part of a militia group calling itself FEAR, or, Forever Enduring, Always Ready. In August, prosecutors indicted three other men, including purported FEAR leader Isaac Aguigui, for the murder of a former member and his girlfriend last December, allegedly out of concern that the couple would reveal the group’s existence and its plans.

SNIP...

The exact political makeup of FEAR is not yet known. Members reportedly have tattoos of anarchist symbols and, based on their purported targets, appear to be influenced by the right-wing, anti-government militia movement that began in the early 1990s. One of the defendants charged on Monday in relation to the December murder, 21-year-old former soldier Timothy Joiner, told the Associated Press by telephone that he was a “proud Republican.” He is charged with three home burglaries, nine car break-ins, and thefts of items including guns, cell phones, GPS devices, a bulletproof vest, a motorcycle helmet and a woman’s debit cards.

SNIP...

For their part, right-wing militia groups recruit within the armed forces and send members in to gain combat training.

A Reuters article in August highlights the intersection of the militia movement with the US military, referring to a 2008 report commissioned by the Justice Department, which found that half of all right-wing extremists in the United States had military experience.

CONTINUED...

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/09/fear-s15.html?view=article_mobile

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
68. ''Gladio'' And The Strategy Of Tension
Mon Nov 30, 2015, 11:19 AM
Nov 2015

The “Strategy of Tension” in the Cold War Period
By Daniele Ganser (excerpts)

“It must be noted that the targets of the strategy of tension are not the dead
and the wounded of the terrorist attacks, as many might assume. The targets are the
political opponents, who are discredited through the attack, and those who remain
unharmed but learn of the attack, thereby coming to fear for their lives and those of
their loved ones. Since the aims of the strategy are to discredit opponents and to
create fear, the real targets are not the people who were killed, whether they number
in the dozens or even thousands, but the millions of people who survive physically
unharmed but emotionally distressed.

The strategy of tension forms part of what is called “psychological warfare”
or PSYWAR. As the term indicates, this form of warfare does not attack human
bodies, tanks, planes, ships, satellites, and houses in order to destroy them, but
human psyches, human minds. Leaving aside the fact that philosophers,
psychologists, neurologists, and theologians have never been able fully to agree on
exactly what “the mind” is, we can for our purposes here define it simply as our
human ability to think and feel. If a group can get access to our thinking and our
feeling without our noticing, it can exercise great power over us. Once we notice
that our psyches are being manipulated through psychological warfare, the technique loses some of its effect.
Psychological warfare played a central role in World War II and all the wars
that followed. It was used by military leaders in Europe, the Americas, Asia,
Australia, and Africa. It is sometimes popularly referred to as “propaganda,” but
propaganda is only one form of psychological warfare. The strategy of tension is a
lesser known form. The US Department of Defense defines psychological warfare
as: “The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the
primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of
hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national
objectives.”1

Psychological warfare can come in many different and seemingly unrelated
forms—leaflets, posters, or television reports, all designed to shape the thinking and
feeling of the target group. Or it can come in the form of a terrorist attack carried out by secret agents and blamed on a political opponent. Needless to say, strategy of-
tension terrorism that kills innocent people is a much more radical and brutal
form of psychological warfare than dropping paper leaflets from a plane over enemy
territory. But the two forms of psychological warfare are linked in their targeting of
the mind—the emotions and thoughts of people.
*
Italian Judge Felice Casson rediscovered the strategy during his
investigation into a number of terrorist attacks Italy had suffered in the 1960s,
1970s, and 1980s. According to Casson, the best documented historical case in
which the strategy of tension was implemented occurred in the Italian village of
Peteano. There, on May 31, 1972, three members of the Italian paramilitary police,
the Carabinieri, were lured to an abandoned Fiat 500 by an anonymous phone call
and were killed when they opened the hood of the car, thereby triggering a bomb.
For many years, this terrorist attack was blamed on the Red Brigades, a left-wing
terror organization in Italy. But after Casson reopened the case, he found that the
Catholic neofascist Vincenzo Vinciguerra, a militant anti-communist, had carried
out the crime.

Casson also found to his great surprise that Vinciguerra had not operated
alone, but had been protected by members of the Italian military intelligence
service, today called SISMI (Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare).2
Judge Casson arrested Vinciguerra, who on trial in 1984 confirmed that it had been
relatively easy for him to escape and hide because large segments of the Italian
security apparatus, including the SISMI, had shared his anti-communist convictions
and had, therefore, silently supported crimes that discredited the Italian left and
especially the Communist Party, which was quite strong. After the bombing,
Vinciguerra recalled, “A whole mechanism came into action…. [T]he Carabinieri,
the Minister of the Interior, the customs services, and the military and civilian
intelligence services accepted the ideological reasoning behind the attack.”3
Casson found that by this crime and other attacks being blamed on the leftwing
Red Brigades, the primary political enemy, the Italian Communist Party, was
discredited. The directors of the military intelligence service and politicians argued
after the crime that the “Communist danger” justified increased military spending
and a reduction of civil liberties in the interest of state security. In this way, the
strategy of tension, as executed through the Peteano terror, spread fear across Italy,
discredited a political opponent, and allowed for the implementation of conservative
security policies. It was very effective, for nobody knew at the time that the
intelligence services had themselves supported the crime.
*
“As far as the intelligence services are concerned, the Peteano attack is part of what
has been called ‘the strategy of tension,’” Judge Casson explained in a BBC
interview in 1991.

The tension created within the country then served to promote
conservative, reactionary social and political tendencies. While this
strategy was being implemented, it was necessary to protect those
behind it, because evidence implicating them was being discovered.
Witnesses withheld information to cover right-wing extremists.4

CONTINUED...

http://www.covertbookreport.com/gladio-and-the-strategy-of-tension/

PS: Thank you for remembering, PeoViejo. For some reason, this essential history went down the Memory Hole, leaving the likes of Roger Ailes to create the context for us peons.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
69. Law Enforcement Assessment of the Violent Extremism Threat
Mon Nov 30, 2015, 11:22 AM
Nov 2015

A handy PDF for those interested in getting news that Chuck Todd and Co., for some reason, miss:



Law Enforcement Assessment of the Violent Extremism Threat

EXCERPT...

Key Findings & Methods:

[font color="green"]Law enforcement agencies in the United States consider anti-government violent
extremists, not radicalized Muslims, to be the most severe threat of political violence
that they face.
[/font color]

They perceive violent extremism to be a much more severe threat nationally than the
threat of violent extremism in their own jurisdictions.

And a large majority of law enforcement agencies rank the threat of all forms of violent
extremism in their own jurisdictions as moderate or lower (3 or less on a 1-5 scale).

These findings emerge from a survey we conducted with the Police Executive Research
Forum in 2014, with funding from the National Institute of Justice. The sampling frame
was all 480 state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies with more than 200
sworn officers, plus 63 additional county and municipal agencies with 200 or fewer
sworn officers in selected jurisdictions that experienced an incident or prosecution for
violent extremism in recent years. The survey yielded responses from 339 of the larger
agencies (a 71 percent response rate) and 43 of the smaller agencies (a 68 percent
response rate), for a total of 382 law enforcement agencies (a 70 percent response rate),
including 35 state agencies, 141 county agencies, and 206 municipal agencies, whose
combined jurisdictions cover 86 percent of the U.S. population.

Primary Terrorist Threat

Of these 382 law enforcement agencies, 74 percent reported anti-government
extremism as one of the top three terrorist threats in their jurisdiction; 39 percent listed
extremism connected with al Qaeda or like-minded terrorist organizations.
Environmental extremism was identified as a top threat by a third of the agencies.

http://sites.duke.edu/tcths/files/2013/06/Kurzman_Schanzer_Law_Enforcement_Assessment_of_the_Violent_Extremist_Threat_final.pdf



Mainstream media doesn't like this because the trail goes straight to their owners.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
26. Thank You for posting this:
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 12:35 PM
Nov 2015

And, here's a bit from the end of the article:

But the DHS and most Americans still remain consumed by fears of Islamic terror attacks. That stubborn refusal to face reality does two things: It allows many dangerous people to go unnoticed until they hurt people and it allows the right-wing ideologues who overtly or subconsciously encourage these people (think Texas Gov. Greg Abbott feeding “Obama is invading Texas” conspiracy theories) to wash their hands of it once something inevitably happens. If no one is studying the links, then no one can speak up about what is happening.

And this will play out again and again, until our nation wakes up and realizes the lives of minorities, the safety of children, and truly combating terrorism in all its forms demands that we put our deference to conservative feelings aside and look at the rotting underbelly of the radical right-wing. Pretending it’s not there just isn’t working.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
72. White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis. Who knew?
Mon Nov 30, 2015, 12:01 PM
Nov 2015


Dealey Plaza, Nov. 22, 1963, DPD officer accompanying "three tramps."

Officer seems to be wearing a KKK patch or a First-Aid merit badge.



David Duke, 1974. So, it's open to question.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
73. Lois Gibson
Mon Nov 30, 2015, 01:43 PM
Nov 2015

Lois Gibson works for the Houston Police Department and is probably the most respected forensic artist and facial expert in the world. She has just been awarded with a notation in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest crime solving rate based on composite sketches and concluded that


Chauncey Holt, Charles Harrelson and Charles Rogers were the men in the photograph.

The three 'tramps' who were taken into custody but the records of their interviews and arrest were lost before Oswald was killed.

 

lonestarnot

(77,097 posts)
34. Pug "strategery": Don't like the message, cut off the messenger's head. Suppress, depress, lie
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 01:08 PM
Nov 2015

for a take-down, make more crazy-assed groups.

 

Spitfire of ATJ

(32,723 posts)
35. I met a right-wing nut who claimed there is no such thing as a right-wing dictator....
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 01:11 PM
Nov 2015

Because the right-wing is all about "freedom".

His wife and kids disagreed.

Populist_Prole

(5,364 posts)
38. I know what you mean
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 01:43 PM
Nov 2015

The right-wingnuts that plague my life are always saying stupid stuff like that and using their "our team is better because it's our team" as a foundation of all their "logic".

mountain grammy

(27,335 posts)
36. Not "offending" conservatives is the role of the corporate media.
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 01:24 PM
Nov 2015

Some of their best friends are conservative, after all. Offending liberals, no problem.
Good article. Liked this conclusion.

And this will play out again and again, until our nation wakes up and realizes the lives of minorities, the safety of children, and truly combating terrorism in all its forms demands that we put our deference to conservative feelings aside and look at the rotting underbelly of the radical right-wing. Pretending it’s not there just isn’t working.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
43. Elijah P. Lovejoy
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 03:55 PM
Nov 2015

1837 November 7: A pro-slavery mob killed abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy, editor of the Alton Observer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_P._Lovejoy

Thank you, ProgressiveEconomist. Mr. Lovejoy has been almost forgotten by history.



Texas: We don't need academics to fact-check our textbooks

The latest controversy of Texas textbooks involved African slaves being described as 'workers.' Texas education officials rejected a proposal that would require university academics to fact-check the textbooks.


By Story Hinckley
Christian Science Monitor, Staff NOVEMBER 19, 2015

The Texas Board of Education rejected a measure Wednesday that would require university experts to fact-check the state’s textbooks in public schools.

The board rejected the measure 8-7, reaffirming the current fact-checking system that relies on citizen review panels made up of parents, teachers, and other members of the general public.

The measure was likely proposed in response to a complaint last month, when a Houston mother found her child’s newly approved geography textbook referred to African slaves shipped to plantations in the United States between the 1500s and 1800s as “workers.”

Instead of requesting academic consultation, the board voted unanimously to require that review panels be made up of “at least a majority” of people with “sufficient content expertise and experience,” at the discretion of the Texas education commissioner.

SNIP...

Republican board member Thomas Ratliff proposed the initial measure to reduce the national controversy over Texas’ textbooks

CONTINUED...

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2015/1119/Texas-We-don-t-need-academics-to-fact-check-our-textbooks


Remember: A conservative education is a miseducation. A liberal education teaches how to think for oneself.

colsohlibgal

(5,276 posts)
46. Far Right Nuts With Weaponry
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 05:09 PM
Nov 2015

These creeps are at least as much a worry here as ISIS etc.

They think jackbooted thugs are going to break in and take their guns. They are insane.

Hekate

(95,015 posts)
62. You can research via Right Wing Watch, People for the American Way, & Southern Poverty Law Center...
Sun Nov 29, 2015, 11:24 PM
Nov 2015

....and a few others. That's just off the top of my head. None of them waited for Uncle Sam to get around to it -- they've all been hard at work for at least 20 years.

Go to it, citizens!

monicaangela

(1,508 posts)
65. Why don't we know much?
Mon Nov 30, 2015, 10:01 AM
Nov 2015

Those who are interested in the subject know a lot. Those that aren't too keen on investigating those that resemble themselves choose to look the other way. Rightwingnuts love these people, that keep the level of fear up and intelligence down. This of course helps politicians who would never be elected by thinking persons the opportunity to get elected and after getting into office continue to build up those who make profit from fear and ignorance.

I first saw Mr. Johnson here:



Many have known about Daryl Johnsons dismissal, and we aren't confused as to why.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
71. Shocking.
Mon Nov 30, 2015, 11:56 AM
Nov 2015

While many were shocked by the massacre at the Sikh temple, our guest, Daryl Johnson, had warned years ago that such an attack was imminent. While working as a senior analyst in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2009, Johnson authored a report warning about the increasing dangers of violent right-wing extremism in the United States, sparking a political firestorm in the process. [font color="red"]Under pressure from Republican lawmakers and popular talk show hosts, DHS ultimately repudiated Johnson’s paper.[/font color] Johnson drew his conclusion on his 15 years of experience studying domestic terrorist groups — particularly white supremacists and neo-Nazis. "Leading up to this report ... we received numerous accolades from law enforcement, intelligence officials, talking about the great work we were doing in the fight against domestic terrorism," Johnson says. "And then, in lieu of the political backlash, the department decided to not only stop all of our work, stop all of the training and briefings that we were scheduled to give, but they also disbanded the unit, reassigned us to other areas within the office, and then made life increasingly difficult for us." Johnson, now the owner of a private consultancy firm, has authored a new book, "Right Wing Resurgence: How a Domestic Terrorist Threat Is Being Ignored." (includes rush transcript)

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/9/former_dhs_analyst_daryl_johnson_on

Thank you for remembering, grokking and caring about democracy, monicaangela!

monicaangela

(1,508 posts)
77. No Octafish,
Mon Nov 30, 2015, 04:43 PM
Nov 2015

I am the one that should be thanking you. I so much appreciate how you continue to inform the participants here at DU regarding the TRUE history of this nation, past and present. I marvel at your work, and can say that I am a fan of yours. Please continue to keep us/me informed, again, thank you for what you are doing here.

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