Federal Agency warns of radical on right

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity," saying the economic recession, the election of America's first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.

Obama Report on “Right-Wing Radicals” Timed for Tea Parties
April 14, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I had a report, I got this at 2:30 yesterday afternoon. I just didn’t have a chance to work it in yesterday. It’s this Department of Homeland Security report, it’s nine pages, I’ve got the PDF here, and, by the way, this speech of Obama’s and the DHS report yesterday are timed for one reason and that’s the tea parties tomorrow. This speech, the primary purpose of this speech is to take any glow off the tea parties. The media is going to report on this speech later this afternoon and tell you about how great the economy is doing, how on top of it Obama is, how it’s going to be a little while before it rebounds but it’s coming back, and in having used that as the setup, they’ll then go to videotape of the tea parties where they’ll try to mock what’s going on with these people, just agitators with no real reason behind what they’re doing. So this speech is designed to totally blunt the tea parties, which are grassroots affairs that will happen all over America tomorrow. The DHS report, this comes from the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano. Now, when you read this whole thing, and it doesn’t take long to read it, it’s only nine pages, you can go to various places and read summaries of it as well. For example, there is no proof here, no proof offered, no evidence offered that anything they project is true.

Let me give you one. “The Department of Homeland Security assesses that right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of right-wing extremists including lone wolves or small terrorist cells to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join right-wing extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.” They even quote Timothy McVeigh in this report. This is the Democrat Party Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano put this together. There is not one instance they can cite as evidence where any of these right-wing groups have done anything. I’ll tell you what this is on the par of. Remember in Missouri where the state police put out a pamphlet warning local police departments in Missouri that if anybody had an NRA bumper sticker on their bumper or a pro-life bumper sticker, that they were potential members of the right-wing militia.

We had a call from Michelle yesterday in Pensacola, Florida, and she’s agreed to let us call her back sometime during the program today. She’s upset because Obama is trying to unify us all, trying to bring us all together, and why am I opposed to this? Well, here’s a clear example. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air today writing about this suggested that Janet Napolitano needs to resign and that Obama needs to withdraw this report. I read things like that and I understand where Ed’s coming from, but I don’t believe for a minute Obama had nothing to do with it. Obama, he provides the vision, he says so; he puts the members of his cabinet there. The idea that Barack Obama is not a partisan, that he’s a unifier, how can anybody today still go for that? The only way they can is to remember what he said during the campaign, but ignore what he’s doing as president. ‘Cause this thing, this Department of Homeland Security report is nothing more than a partisan hit job filled with lies and innuendo that portrays any conservatism as right-wing extremism. I’ll read you a couple of excerpts of this just so that you get the idea.

“Rightwing extremists are harnessing this historical election as a recruitment tool. Many rightwing extremists are 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 ownership and use. Rightwing extremists are increasingly galvanized by these concerns and leverage them as drivers for recruitment. From the 2008 election timeframe to the present, rightwing extremists have capitalized on related racial and political prejudices in expanded propaganda campaigns, thereby reaching out to a wider audience of potential sympathizers.” What you have here is Barack Obama, forget Napolitano, it’s his administration, he provides the vision, he puts people in these positions that he wants to do his bidding. This is Barack Obama, and this is an effort to stifle what anybody would consider to be normal political dissent. He is characterizing those of you who oppose an expanding government, huge socialistic tendencies, legalization of illegals for the purpose of making them Democrats, we are now right-wing extremists and we are arming up, and this report is to warn other law enforcement agencies of the dangers posed by right-wing extremists.

The thing came out last week on April 7th. Roger Hedgecock and a couple people found it, made it public yesterday afternoon. As I said, I got my copy at 2:30 in the afternoon. This is being made and widely disseminated now on the day prior to the tea parties as well. Here’s another excerpt. “Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures. Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish ‘financial elites.’” Right-wing extremist chatter is spreading this kind of stuff around? “These ‘accusatory’ tactics are employed to draw new recruits into rightwing extremist groups and further radicalize those already—” So you have a report from Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama, Department of Homeland Security portraying standard, ordinary, every day conservatives as posing a bigger threat to this country than Al-Qaeda terrorists or genuine enemies of this country like Kim Jong Il. They wouldn’t write anything about Jim Jong Il like this. They wouldn’t write anything about Osama Bin Laden like this.

Don’t forget, this is the same bunch that once suggested the speech code in which references to jihad and Islamofascism were to be purged. We were not to discuss terrorism with those words. It was not to be discussed in the country; it was not to be discussed in the government. The same people who wanted to purge references to jihad or Islamofascism are now out with this report, which is a genuine hit job on standard run-of-the-mill, mainstream ordinary Americans. “DHS/I&A will be working with its state and local partners over the next several months to ascertain with greater regional specificity the rise in rightwing extremist activity in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the political, economic, and social factors that drive rightwing extremist radicalization.” That’s just a portion of it; it’s nine pages long. Homeland security warning of radicals on the right, defined as groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority. Anybody opposed to federal authority, expanding federal authority will now be tagged as a member of right-wing extremist groups.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Have you ever noticed...? You look at this DHS report. We’ve made comment on this before. Wouldn’t it be nice if the liberals of America actually acknowledged our real enemies the way they acknowledge conservatives?

I mean, the language they use in this report to describe conservatives... We hear all the time that the left is a bunch of pacifists, make-love-not-war types. They don’t want violence. They just want to get along, and why can’t everybody just be happy together, and yet when you read what a typical leftist like Obama or Janet Napolitano put together in this Department of Homeland Security report, you conclude nothing else that they are extreme partisan radicals, and they’re ready to go to war with a domestic enemy, conservatives, that they consider to be a greater threat than Iran, than China, than North Korea, than Venezuela, Russia, or any other nation that threatens the United States. Conservatives are the biggest threat to America. That’s the message coming out of Washington from Obama and Janet Napolitano.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Marian in Fox Island, Washington. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. This is not my grandpa’s America, and DHS is talking about me. I’m heartland America, and I am not a right-wing extremist, but I feel like King Olaf during the Second World War, he wore a Star of David to put himself with the people who were being oppressed, and I feel like putting an arm band on saying right-wing extremist to let people know who they’re talking about.

RUSH: Well, I understand your anger about this, but this is the Obama administration. They say Janet Napolitano, but this is what Obama thinks —

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: — it’s what Bill Ayers thinks; it’s what Jeremiah Wright thinks.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: He populates his administration with these people, and it’s clear that they consider people like you to be a greater enemy than genuine threats to our freedom and existence.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: This is playing to, of course, the left-wing fringe base that voted for Obama. You could wear a T-shirt, you could wear anything you want, right-wing extremist and so forth, and it would just be said by those who saw you that, “Finally they’re admitting it.” They wouldn’t get the humor of it.

CALLER: That’s true.

RUSH: But you’re right to be offended by it. By the way, if you read the whole thing, there’s not one bit of evidence. It’s all speculation. It’s an intelligence report from the Department of Homeland Security, and there’s not one bit of evidence. They even go back and quote Timothy McVeigh in this thing.

CALLER: Well, King Olaf did it for a reason, to let the Jews know that they were not alone, and probably something like that, if we did that, it would let other people like us know that we’re not alone. And I resent them taking America away from me. I grew up in the same America that you did, Rush, and I feel the terrible loss of it.

RUSH: A lot of people do, and that’s why the tea parties are starting tomorrow. This intelligence report from DHS is the same party, same political party that made up intelligence and politicized intel. To me it isn’t shocking, it’s brazen. The fact that Obama thinks this is not surprising; the fact that his Department of Homeland Security would put it out as openly as this is a little surprising.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I think I’ll send Janet Napolitano a quick little note saying, “Madam Secretary, given your latest report from the Department of Homeland Security, don’t close Guantanamo Bay, Club Gitmo. Keep it open so you can ship all the right-wing extremist Americans, former military members down there when you capture them engaging in whatever anti-American activity you dream up.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: San Jose, California. Susan, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program. Nice to have you with us.

CALLER: Oh, thank you. I called because you were reading the report from Homeland Security, and I wanted to say, I think I completely agree with it.

RUSH: Okay. I’ll bite. Tell me why.

CALLER: Well, because, you know, we’re the people that want to go back to the Constitution, that, you know, really love our freedom and understand that it’s being taken away, and therefore we pose an enormous threat to the government. We’re the people buying guns and storing ammunition and preparing for the time when we have to fight the government off.

RUSH: Wait a minute, though. I understand the point you’re trying to make, but that’s not extremism.

CALLER: Well, to them it is.

RUSH: But it’s not. They don’t get to define the terms. We are not extremists. Those of us who want to protect the founding of this nation and preserve it as it was when we were born and grew up, we are not extremists. They are the extremists. They’re not right about this. This is an effort to criminalize political dissent, standard, ordinary everyday political dissent. This is an effort to criminalize it and to categorize it as something people need to be afraid of and perhaps defend themselves against, which is a crock.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Rob in North Dakota. It’s nice to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. How you doing, man? It’s an honor to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: I’m giving you a call on this thing, this right-wing extremism thing that we’ve apparently come up with, and we got document a while back, I work for the government as well, and something of that nature that came out. Apparently it’s public knowledge now, but I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I’ve been in the agency for almost 20 years and —

RUSH: Wait, now. Wait. Whoa, whoa. Which agency?

CALLER: Customs and Border Protection.

RUSH: Customs and Border Protection. Are you referring to this Department of Homeland Security thing about right-wing extremism?

CALLER: Yes, sir.

RUSH: So how long ago did you get it?

CALLER: A couple days ago.

RUSH: Okay, yeah. It came out, yeah, couple days ago. So... Okay. Now that I know what you’re talking about.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: What’s your reaction to it? You couldn’t believe what you were reading?

CALLER: I couldn’t believe what I was reading because the thing that we stand for as God-fearing Americans and the things that our Constitution... I’m reading this document and I about fell out of my chair because apparently if you believe in some of these things you’re this right-wing extremist crazy person, and there was mention to white supremacy and things like that in there, and I thought it was kind of interesting.

RUSH: Oh, there’s all kinds of things like the shooter.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: There’s one incident cited: the shooter in Pittsburgh that shot three cops.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: This report cites him as being a Looney Toon that believed that the Jews were trying to control the world with a one-world government —

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: — and that he was opposing the constitution because he was one of these wacko believers, and so that, to Janet Napolitano and Obama, a shooter like that, that’s what they think a mainstream conservative is.

CALLER: Right. And that’s what just throws me for a loop, because it’s like if you are a conservative person, you know, we’re back to this right-wing conspiracy thing from the Clinton era, and they’re using that terminology. When I read that that was the first thing that caught my eye, that title up on the page, I said, “What is this?” And then it had an official seal and all these things on it. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. So, I don’t know what to think of it.

RUSH: You don’t know what to think of it?

CALLER: (laughing) Well, I do but it’s just very shocking because I can’t believe we’ve gone this far over the bubble that... I mean, it’s like, “How do we regain our ability to bring it back a little bit?”

RUSH: To me, it’s not so far how we’ve gone over the bubble. I know you mean America, but I think it’s a very instructive and teachable moment. All these poor people that think Obama’s about unity and solving all of our problems and bringing us all together. This guy’s like every other politician. He’s about wiping out his political enemies — and unfortunately, he considers conservatives in the United States to be a bigger threat to his country and him than people that want to blow up our country. I think it’s helpful in the sense that people can get an idea of just who this man is, ‘cause it’s not Janet Napolitano. Janet Napolitano wouldn’t put something like this out unless it was approved, because this is so extreme itself that this wouldn’t go out unless it had Obama’s imprimatur. It’s what we’re up against. It is finally words on paper what the extreme left in this country actually thinks of us. And for that reason, it’s somewhat helpful. But the danger in it is, is that it creates a circumstance where law enforcement officials can now treat people who are engaged in the time-honored art of just standard political dissent, of being right-wing extremists prone to military acts, militia acts like, violence, and so forth. They can be spied on, monitored, and this sort of thing. It’s no accident this comes out a week before the tea parties that are slated to kick off tomorrow.

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