DHS Crushed This Analyst for Warning About Far-Right Terror (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/dhs/all/)

15 years studying domestic terrorist groups — particularly white supremacists and neo-Nazis — as a government counterterrorism analyst, the last six of them at the Department of Homeland Security. There, he even homebrewed his own database on far-right extremist groups on an Oracle platform, allowing his analysts to compile and sift reporting in the media and other law-enforcement agencies on radical and potentially violent groups.

But Johnson’s career took an unexpected turn in 2009, when an analysis he wrote on the rise of “Right-Wing Extremism” (.pdf) sparked a political controversy. Under pressure from conservatives, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) repudiated Johnson’s paper — an especially bitter pill for him to swallow now that Wade Michael Page, a suspected white supremacist, killed at least six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. For Johnson, the shooting was a reminder that the government’s counterterrorism efforts are almost exclusively focused on al-Qaida, even as non-Islamist groups threaten Americans domestically.Conservative writers feared that the DHS was demonizing — even, potentially, criminalizing — mainstream right-wing speech. “It’s no small coincidence that [Secretary Janet] Napolitano’s agency disseminated the assessment just a week before the nationwide April 15 Tax Day Tea Party protests,” pundit Michelle Malkin speculated in the Washington Times. Others objected that Johnson’s report unfairly stigmatized veterans.DHS responded by cutting “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 Washington Post reported in June 2009.

According to Johnson, his former team now consists of a single analyst tasked with tracking all domestic non-Islamic extremism. His database has been shuttered.

(Wired - Danger Room (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/dhs/all/))

That's because domestic terrorists are known as "criminals."

especially if they're white.

That's because domestic terrorists are known as "criminals."

Of course they are (particularly by Fox News). Makes it easier to separate "us" from "them", since some of "us" are just criminals, not like them darn terrrsts over "there".

From the article:

...since Johnson released his ill-fated report, the Wichita, Kansas, abortion doctor George Tiller was assassinated; a security guard was killed when a gunman with neo-Nazi ties went on a shooting spree at the U.S. Holocaust Museum; the FBI arrested members of a Florida neo-Nazi outfit tied to drug dealing and motorcycle gangs; a man was charged with attempting to detonate a weapon of mass destruction at a Spokane, Washington march commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday; and several mosques around the country have been vandalized or attacked — including a Missouri mosque that burned to the ground on Monday, which had been attacked before.

As Salon recounts, the FBI has been warning for years that far-right racialist organizations might be interested in suicide terrorism. Peter Bergen, a longtime chronicler of al-Qaida, wrote on Tuesday that far-right domestic terrorism rivals and might eclipse the threat of homegrown jihadism.

I remember that paper. It looked like a page out of the Democrat National Committee. Essentially, one had to beware of anyone who opposed Democrat talking points on the military, gun control, etc. It also tried to demonize people returning from military service. No wonder the guy's career took a dumper.

Look at the flip side with Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood known to be in contact with religious extremists prior to the massacre. Terrorism? Nope--the Defense Department is trying to bill it as "workplace violence."

Then you would agree with the folks over at Fox, hm?

Fox News Analyst: Sikh Temple Massacre "Not Domestic Terrorism" (http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/fox-news-analyst-sikh-temple-massacre-not-do)

Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano is insisting that it was "not domestic terrorism" for a white supremacist to shoot seven people dead at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, but a Muslim U.S. Army major killing 13 coworkers at Ft. Hood was.ppears to have been a disgruntled nut job who hated Muslims, didn't know the difference between Sikhs and Muslims and thought by killing the Sikhs he was somehow going to eliminate the Muslim population. It is an absurd, tortured way of thinking but it is not an act of domestic terrorism."

He continued: "On the other hand, the Ft. Hood shooter [Nidal Malik Hasan] who killed military in the place where they worked while damning and condemning the behavior of the government -- the employer of the people that he killed -- the government refuses to call that an act of domestic terrorism."

"While hailing Allah," Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade noted.

(Crooks & Liars (http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/fox-news-analyst-sikh-temple-massacre-not-do))

Do keep in mind that without an occasional domestic terrorist fling, the sheeple might begin to question having to go through a strip search every time they board a plane. Might begin to question why every eMail and every phone conversation is stored in Big Brother's Multi Billion Dollar Data Base. Might question why all those tax dollars are going to organizations with Nazi-esque names like Homeland Security. Might question $Trillions$ being spent to support the slaughter of Millions of Middle East civilians.

Gasp!:eek: They might even demand that real terrorist organizations such as the IRS be shut down entirely.

I would argue that if it isn't an act of violence directed towards "the state" in principle by terrorizing and killing civilians it is not an act of terrorism.

For example the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh was an act of domestic terrorism because it was perpetrated against the state. The racist killing of Sikhs or blacks or orientals or any other identifiable minority is a hate crime it is not terrorism.

Then you would agree with the folks over at Fox, hm?

Yes.

I would argue that if it isn't an act of violence directed towards "the state" in principle by terrorizing and killing civilians it is not an act of terrorism.

The FBI defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

(Federal Bureau of Investigation) (http://www.fbi.gov/albuquerque/about-us/what-we-investigate/priorities/)

The FBI defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

(Federal Bureau of Investigation) (http://www.fbi.gov/albuquerque/about-us/what-we-investigate/priorities/)

ter·ror·ism
   [ter-uh-riz-uhm] Show IPA
noun
1.
the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.
2.
the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3.
a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

It is a matter of semantics as is illustrated in the first line of the Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism) entry:

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition.

Despite the FBI's definition, terrorism historically has always had a political motivation associated with the use of the term.

So is the killing of blacks by the Ku Klux Klan a crime or an act of terrorism and does it really matter that much as any act of terrorism is always a crime.

The FBI defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

(Federal Bureau of Investigation) (http://www.fbi.gov/albuquerque/about-us/what-we-investigate/priorities/)

It is interesting that for some time, many threw around the word 'terrorism' so lavishly. Now, they are suddenly keenly interested in the strict definition.

Basically, I think the confusion is that we like to title our different crimes so that we can categorize them to apply the law of the country. Terrorism is just a category of crimes.

Although, I'm not sure what categories Homeland Security uses.

Not sure why it matters whether it's called domestic terrorism or not?

Domestic Terrorism is the exclusive domain of the IRS although recently they have announced their intent to expand operations on a world wide scale.

Domestic Terrorism is the exclusive domain of the IRS although recently they have announced their intent to expand operations on a world wide scale.

You do an injustice to all actual victims of terrorism by claiming the IRS to be terrorists and equating your situation to theirs... Fill out your forms and stop your belly aching.

Until you have suffered from real terrorism you just sound like a spoiled child... Get over it.

Such hyperbolic statements are just so much clap trap I don't know how you can expect anyone to take you seriously.

Domestic Terrorism is the exclusive domain of the IRS although recently they have announced their intent to expand operations on a world wide scale.

Boy you can't even tongue in cheek around here without getting crapped on.

see quoted definition. Be sure to read that lest you receive another serious rebuke.

Boy you can't even tongue in cheek around here without getting crapped on.

see quoted definition. Be sure to read that lest you receive another serious rebuke.

Did read it, hence the comment about the IRS.

35,000 suicides in the US every year. If only 1% of those individuals reached that total state of hopelessness due to actions of the IRS, then clearly the IRS is responsible for more US terrorist deaths than all other organizations combined. I would suggest that 1% guess is probably much less than half of the real number but lacking any statistics, I am trying to be extremely conservative here. To me being driven to suicide is in some ways worse than outright murder, as the suicide path probably involved years of helplessness and terror prior to the actual death. The other thing about an IRS suicide is that therapy or drugs cannot eliminate the cause.

FWIW I do find it fascinating and a little sad that some people can look at particular actions, which if perpetrated by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union or Communist China would earn instant and total condemnation. Somehow though, if the USA, Canada, Israel or... does the same thing it is perfectly OK. Evil is evil and needs to be labeled as such, not forgiven because it is our guys doing the dirty work.

Did read it, hence the comment about the IRS.

35,000 suicides in the US every year. If only 1% of those individuals reached that total state of hopelessness due to actions of the IRS, then clearly the IRS is responsible for more US terrorist deaths than all other organizations combined. I would suggest that 1% guess is probably much less than half of the real number but lacking any statistics, I am trying to be extremely conservative here. To me being driven to suicide is in some ways worse than outright murder, as the suicide path probably involved years of helplessness and terror prior to the actual death. The other thing about an IRS suicide is that therapy or drugs cannot eliminate the cause.

FWIW I do find it fascinating and a little sad that some people can look at particular actions, which if perpetrated by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union or Communist China would earn instant and total condemnation. Somehow though, if the USA, Canada, Israel or... does the same thing it is perfectly OK. Evil is evil and needs to be labeled as such, not forgiven because it is our guys doing the dirty work.

Again more hyperbolic clap trap... no one makes someone kill themselves, that is an individual's decision, whatever their circumstances. Comparing the IRS to Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union or Communist China where human rights were systematically denied and millions murdered for any resistance against the state or for just being of the "wrong" ethnic origin is just more hyperbole and rubbish.