Homeland Security omits "right-wing" threats

From SourceWatch

Homeland Security focuses on "possible terror threats from radical environmental and animal rights activists" but omits threats posed by right-wing extremists" according to a DHS report "first disclosed" the last week in March 2005 on the website of the Congressional Quarterly. [1][2]

The report states that between 2005 and 2011 DHS "expects to contend primarily with adversaries such as al Qaeda and other foreign entities affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement, as well as domestic radical Islamist groups." [3][4]

The report "does not mention domestic extremist groups" or white supremacist groups like Aryan Nations and Army of God or anti-abortion activists, "which have previously been identified by federal officials as threats." [5]

The report lists "left-wing domestic groups, such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), as terrorist threats. [6]

Experts on domestic terrorism were "surprised the department did not include right-wing groups on their list of adversaries. ... James O. Ellis III, a senior terror researcher for the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), said ... that whereas left-wing groups, which have been more active recently, have focused mainly on the destruction of property, right-wing groups have a much deadlier and more violent record and should be on the list. 'The nature of the history of terrorism is that you will see acts in the name of [right-wing] causes in the future.'" [7]

"In assessing the most likely targets, the report says that 'visual symbols' top the list, like the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon and the CIA headquarters, as do 'American popular culture icons' like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Statue of Liberty." [8]

"Of the six nations identified by the State Department as terrorist sponsors, five of them are described by Homeland Security as a 'diminishing concern.' Those five are North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Cuba. The sixth country on the list, Iran, is highlighted as a likely threat over the next five years. ... 'Only Iran appears to have the possible future motivation to use terrorist groups, in addition to its own state agents, to plot against the U.S. homeland,' the report says, adding that 'ideologically driven nonstate actors' are the biggest threat to the United States." [9]

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The Report

"This the first time the two-year-old department has prepared what will now be an annual Integrated Planning Guidance Report, a document that is listed as 'sensitive' but not classified, meaning it is not intended to be released publicly," wrote the New York Times's Eric Lipton. "The goal, said Brian Roehrkasse, a department spokesman, is to focus the department's $40 billion in annual spending toward the most serious threats." [10]

"The DHS document, entitled 'Integrated Planning Guidance, Fiscal Years 2005-2011,' is dated January 2005," wrote Justin Rood of CQ.com. "Its pages are marked 'Sensitive â?? Do Not Distribute Outside the Department of Homeland Security â?? Draft.' Each paragraph in the document is marked '(U/FOUO),' which typically indicates it has been reviewed by a government censor and determined to be unclassified, but 'for official use only.'" [11]

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