Obama DHS: 'Right-wing extremists' greater threat than ISIS
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| image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/02/TerrorReport.jpg |
The Obama administration has named a national security threat it believes is more dangerous than even the Islamic State terrorists beheading, crucifying and burning innocent human beings: Right-wing extremists.
According to CNN, “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.”
CNN doesn’t cite specific sources, but it says the new intelligence report references “24 violent sovereign citizen-related attacks across the U.S. since 2010.”
“Some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to – and in some cases greater than – the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention.”
CNN reported, “The government says these are extremists who believe that they can ignore laws and that their individual rights are under attack in routine daily instances such as a traffic stop or being required to obey a court order.”
The report cites a 2012 incident in which a father and son reportedly shot and killed two police officers in Louisiana after being pulled over for a traffic violation. The two allegedly belonged to the sovereign citizen movement and claimed police had no authority over them.
The DHS intelligence assessment found, “(Sovereign citizen) violence during 2015 will occur most frequently during routine law enforcement encounters at a suspect’s home, during enforcement stops and at government offices.”
A CNN map shows DHS’ examples of sovereign citizen violence since 2010:
image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/02/CNN_map.jpg
It adds, “[L]aw enforcement officers will remain the primary target
of (sovereign citizen) violence over the next year due to their role in
physically enforcing laws and regulations.”The report comes after the White House concludes its three-day conference focusing on “violent extremism.”
The Obama administration has come under fire in recent days for its refusal to use the terms “Islamic extremism.” President Obama has described ISIS, the group that beheads Christians and burns them alive, as a “non-Islamic” group whose recruitment of radicals is fueled by poverty and hopelessness.
“We’re not at war against Islam,” he said during this week’s White House summit on “countering violent extremism,” adding, “We are at war with those who pervert Islam.”
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at the summit, compared the troubling rise in Islamic terror attacks to right-wing extremists and militias who commit violence “in the name of the Bible.”
For its report, CNN interviewed the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, a well-funded civil rights law firm which has been accused of being a hate group and publishes an “extremist watch list.” It was one of several groups identified by a domestic terrorist as having inspired his attempt to murder Christians at the Family Research Council in a foiled armed attack in 2012.
SPLC senior fellow Mark Potok estimated there are as many as 300,000 Americans involved in sovereign citizen extremism and 100,000 who make up the core of the movement.
According to the report, Potok said some groups in the movement “travel the country pitching their ideology as a way to help homeowners escape foreclosure or get out of debt, by simply ignoring the courts and bankruptcy law.”
WND reported in 2009 when DHS issued a report warning of the possibility of violence by unnamed “right-wing extremists” concerned about illegal immigration, increasing federal power, restrictions on firearms, abortion and the loss of U.S. sovereignty and singles out returning war veterans as particular threats.
That report, titled, “Right-wing
Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in
Radicalization and Recruitment,” dated April 7, 2009, stated that
“threats from white supremacist and violent anti-government groups
during 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to
carry out violent acts.”
However, the document, first reported by talk-radio host and WND columnist
Roger Hedgecock, went on to suggest worsening economic woes, potential
new legislative restrictions on firearms and “the return of military
veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their
communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or
lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.”
The report from DHS’ Office of
Intelligence and Analysis defined right-wing extremism in the U.S. as
“divided into those groups, movements and adherents that are primarily
hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic
groups) and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal
authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government
authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are
dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or
immigration.”
Most notable was the report’s focus on the impact of returning war veterans.
