More Dishonesty on the DHS Extremists Reports — Part II

I want to be really clear about why I don’t think that these Threat Assessments are as threatening to run-of-the-mill wingnuts as they are so very eager to claim. Let’s start with what the US News and World Report wrote back in 2005 n the occasion of a SPLC report on right wing terror:

In the 10 years since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing killed 168 people, roughly 60 right-wing terrorist plots have been uncovered in the United States, according to an upcoming report by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. The plots, all foiled by law enforcement, reportedly included violent plans by antigovernment militia groups, racist skinhead organizations, and Ku Klux Klan members to use various types of chemical bombs and other weapons.

The SPLC was writing this report to support efforts to get the BushCo DHS to work as hard to curb right-wing terror threats as they were for the left wing ones. The left wing treat report had been leaked earlier that year, and to date, no one knows if there really was a right wing one. But read the whole thing and take a good look at the types of actions that were stopped by law enforcement doing what we’d expect them to do.

In addition, the FBI publishes periodic reports on Domestic Terrorism (this one covers 2001-2005, there are probably more recent ones not released or residing in places I didn’t look). This document lists out a number of the preventions and incidents the FBI has been concerned with as well as some discussion of future expectations. Here are just a few of the kind of preventions and incidents (not including the Islamic terrorist-related incidents) that the DHS Threat Assessments are intended to red flag:

  • APRIL 16, 2004
    Planned Attacks against Minorities
    Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
    (Prevention of one act of Domestic Terrorism)As noted in 2004 Terrorist Incidents, the FBI arrested Sean Michael Gillespie on April 16, 2004, for having firebombed the Temple B’nai Israel in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The attack against the synagogue in Oklahoma City was likely the first of a series of unspecified attacks Gillespie intended to commit. Following Gillespie’s arrest, a search of his residence revealed a videotape containing surveillance of a Las Vegas synagogue and a statement by Gillespie that he was on a “mission for the white race,” which was to involve a cross-country spree of unspecified terrorist acts. Concern for future attacks was also supported by Gillespie’s admission following his arrest to having previously committed random acts of vandalism and violence against minorities.

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