Who Targeted "Right-Wing Extremists?"

OpenCongress reported on Representative Peter King's (R-NY) efforts to get to the bottom of the Obama administration's recent targeting of many Americans as potential right-wing extremists in a Homeland Security report sent to law enforcement officials at all levels.

The report, entitled “Right-wing Extremism Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” advised federal, state and local law-enforcement officials to be particularly watchful of Americans opposed to illegal immigration, abortion, gun restrictions, and high taxation, and also to keep an eye on returning military veterans as potential threats to American security. Released just before the April 15 Tea Parties, the report seemed perfectly timed to chill Americans' exercise of their right of lawful assembly.

Many were quick to repudiate the administration's assumption that ordinary citizens represent an extremist threat to the nation and were particularly offended that military heroes returning from battle be shrouded by Homeland Security under a cloud of suspicion.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano withdrew the report as a "mistake," and apologized to any veterans groups that might have been offended by it, but offered no apology to other Americans painted as extremists with the same brush. Civil liberties officials at Homeland Security had futilely objected to the report, indicating, to Rep. King, the possible existance of rogue elements in the Department.

According to OpenCongress, Republicans in the House Committee on Homeland Security, led by Rep. King, used a "relatively rare" procedure known as "resolution of inquiry" to request copies of the documents Homeland Security used as a basis for their disputed conclusions:

Congress Daily (sub-only) reports:

The Republican resolution would require the department to produce all records dealing with the report, including those involving discussions about privacy issues, procedures for approving and disseminating the report and internal communications, including when Napolitano learned about it.

At the hearing, Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson [D, MS-2] was more sympathetic than not to the Republicans’ cause. “When the DHS-produced assessment first surfaced in April, like many Americans, I had issues with its content,” Thompson said at the hearing. But he didn’t support the Republican resolution as is; nor did he direct committee Democrats to vote down the resolution, as is the normal practice with these kinds of things.

Instead, he proposed a substitute amendment demanding less specific information from DHS. Whereas the Republicans [sic] bill calls for the disclosure of a wide range of specific documents, Thompson’s amendment asks for a written explanation of how the report was produced and disseminated. Thompson’s amendment was approved by the committee by voice vote.

“The mere fact that this resolution of inquiry may go forward is almost unprecedented, I’m told, by people who’ve worked for decades on the Hill,” a Republican aide told reporters at Congress Daily. “The fact that the Democratic majority went from calling this the nuclear option and calling this a stunt to embracing it … is phenomenal.”

The resolution, with Thompson’s amendment substituted for the original text, will now go to the full House for a vote.

At the left, I have posted a widget connecting to information about the resolution of inquiry, its progress, and its sponsors.

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