Napolitano’s actions “inexcusable”
The Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, is responding to outrage over her ‘rightwing extremism’ threat assessment report and her latest remarks about the unsafe Candadian border by saying…..she’s being misunderstood.
Kinda hard to make that claim when we have that threat assessment out there loaded with warnings about “rightwing extremists” and the possibility that our returning troops may easily be recruited by them.
That report, I said, amounted to “little more than a nine-page screed against phantoms” and was an overly broad attack that lumped returning veterans and people who hold certain political beliefs that are well within the mainstream of American political thought in with what the department referred to as religious and racial hate groups…
The Napolitano report, first and foremost, includes “no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence” but is written in contemplation by the Department of Homeland Security that “The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization.” It is, in a word, supposition.
And awfully worded, at that (the pdf of the ‘threat assessment’ is linked in that article).
It begins:
The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues. The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recuitment.
What?! This is not only playing loosely and irresponsibly with stereotypes, but is actually peddling racism to stoke fear.
It also targets our vets.
Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.
Only when this report was made public and outraged decent American citizens and veterans groups and many congressional representatives did Napolitano come out and say ‘sorry, I wish that part had been worded a little differently.’
House Republicans are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down or be fired in the wake of a controversial department memo that has sparked indignant battle cries from conservatives and some veterans.
“Singling out political opponents for working against the ruling party is precisely the tactic of every tyrannical government from Red China to Venezuela,” said Texas Rep. John Carter, a member of the party’s elected leadership who has organized an hour of floor speeches Wednesday night to call for Napolitano’s ouster. “The first step in the process is creating unfounded public suspicion of political opponents, followed by arresting and jailing any who continue speaking against the regime.â€
The incoherence in Homeland Security is clear, and disturbing. And, as Congressman Carter said on the floor of the House, inexcusable.
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Let me see if I’ve got this straight.
Your Homeland Security chief tells the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Washington correspondent Neil MacDonald “terrorists have come into our country … across the Canadian border.”
MacDonald asks incredulously: “Are you talking about the 9/11 perpetrators?”
Janet Napolitano: “Not just those but others as well.”
Perhaps the person in charge of the U.S. side of the longest undefended border in the world would be good enough to furnish the names of these terrorists?
Perhaps the secretary could make the effort to read up on current events and discover that none of the 9/11 terrorists entered the US through Canada?
Perhaps Janet Napolitano could do the decent thing and resign before she does any more damage to relations with America’s strongest friend and most important ally?
That DHS report was one of the most divisive and frightening documents that I’ve ever seen the U.S. government produce. It essentially suggests that anyone who disagrees with Obama is a terrorist. It is pure political hubris and arrogance.
If the Bush administration had released that document about left wing extremists (like these guys: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/04/grand-jury-indicts-two-members-of-animal-liberation-group.html) the cities would be burning and there would be a 5 million man march on the White House.
To paraphrase the current First Lady, I have never been more embarrassed to be an American.
Janet Napolitano is simply the tip of the iceberg where the Obama administrations is concerned. Look at any of his cabinet appointments and you’ll find the same thread of tyrannical, socialism in each and every one of them. And not only in the cabinet, but in his personal staff as well. You simply have to look closely at Rahm Emmanuel and the rest of the white house cronies.
Napolitano should be fired. But to do you really think that’s going to happen? Do you really think there will be any kind of an outcry from the main stream media? Of course not. This president, and anyone connected to his administration will be given a pass at ever turn. Our only hope is that Obama will be a 1 term wonder and will be summarily thrown out of office in 2012.
As a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, I am horrified at what I’m hearing coming out of the Obama administration regarding the defense of this country, and his systematic destruction of everything the Bush administration has done to keep us safe for the last 8 years.
Arrogance, thy name is Obama!