Republicans Criticize Report on Extremists

Officials warn fringe right-wing groups may try to recruit GIs coming home

Hate groups including neo-Nazis and the Klan have grown in recent years, feeding on economic fears and distrust of government. Watch NBC News report. (Image: NBC News)

April 15, 2009

WASHINGTON – Republicans on Wednesday said a Homeland Security Department intelligence assessment unfairly characterizes military veterans as right-wing extremists. House Republican leader John Boehner described the report as offensive and called on the agency to apologize to veterans.

The agency’s intelligence assessment, sent to law enforcement officials last week, warns that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country’s first black president to recruit members.

The assessment also said that returning military veterans who have difficulties assimilating back into their home communities could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or might engage in lone acts of violence. …

The agency describes these assessments as part of a series published “to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States.”

In February, the department issued a report to law enforcement that said left-wing extremist groups were likely to use cyber attacks more often in the next 10 years to further their cause.

In September, the agency highlighted how right-wing extremists over the past five years have used the immigration debate as a recruiting tool.

Between September 2008 and Feb. 5, the agency issued at least four reports, obtained by The Associated Press, on individual extremist groups such as the Moors, Vinlanders Social Club, Volksfront and Hammerskin Nation. …

Related reports on this site

Obama, Economy Fuel Hate Groups (Feb. 28, 2009)

Obama Racist Backlash (Nov. 16, 2008)

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8/24/09 Update

Minnesotas biggest talker, Bachmann fears ID cards for prolifers

Report: Militias on the rise, Bachmann stoking anti-government sentiment

Southern Poverty Law Center Report: Return of the Militias

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Car Blast Kills 10, Wounds 23 in Northern Iraq

April 15, 2009 

KIRKUK, Iraq – A car bomb that targeted police assigned to protect northern Iraq’s oil industry killed 10 people and wounded 23 on Wednesday, police said, the latest high-profile bombing in the country.

The casualties were piled into a police truck, and police traveling with the dead and wounded fired into the air to clear traffic on the road ahead, a Reuters witness said. …

It was unclear how many of the casualties were police and how many civilian. …

Police initially said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber, but some now say the attackers may have detonated an explosives-laden vehicle, targeting a bus carrying police in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

The oil-rich city is hotly disputed by Arabs, and by Turkmen and ethnic Kurds who consider it their ancestral capital. …

Most attacks in Iraq’s north are focused on the city of Mosul, where a truck bomb on Friday killed two Iraqi policemen and five U.S. troops in the single deadliest incident for U.S. forces for over a year.

A series of high-profile blasts and clashes between Shi’ite-led government forces and Sunni U.S.-backed anti-Qaeda militias in Baghdad during the same period have heightened tensions, which some analysts say could have political motives. …

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UPDATE

Suicide Bomber in Uniform Kills 16 in Iraq Base

April 16, 2009 

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber in army uniform detonated a vest packed with explosives at a military base in Iraq’s western Anbar province on Thursday, killing 16 people and wounding 50, the army and police said.

A Defense Ministry statement and Anbar’s military command center said no one was killed, and only 17 wounded. There was no explanation for the discrepancy, although official tolls often fall far short of those from unofficial army and police sources.

“We had a regular parade, and were about to go into the cafeteria when a huge noise made me fall to the ground … I saw fire, smoke and debris … I saw people without arms and legs,” said soldier Mokhaled al-Dulaimi.

All the casualties were soldiers, the army and police said. …

Thursday’s bombing was one of a string of high-profile attacks in Iraq in recent weeks, as provinces finalize new alliances and choose new governors after January’s vote. …

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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Abortion: Human Right or Human Rights Violation?

Does pregnancy from rape justify abortion? What about poverty? Internationally known speaker and debater Stephanie Gray of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform will be on the campus of the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., to speak on these and other current life issues.

When? Thursday,  April 16 at 7 p.m.

Where? Haehn Campus Center (HCC) Alumni Hall 

Admission free and open to the public