Summary: The growing fear among some citizens of losing their rights and freedoms has created a political backlash toward the U.S. government and manifested itself in violent rhetoric and anti-government groups who want to “take their country back.” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews takes a hard look at the recent surge of anger on the political right in “Rise of the New Right: A Hardball Documentary with Chris Matthews.” In this blog entry, Aubrey Immelman chronicles the rise of rightwing extremism in America following the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States in November 2008. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 16, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that North Korea threatened a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” if provoked by the U.S., but that U.S. officials were downplaying any imminent threat to the United States of a North Korean missile strike or confrontation between the two countries at sea.

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Summary: At a somber ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned of the need for continued vigilance against terrorists. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 19, 2009, Aubrey Immelman commemorated the 14th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing; at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a truck bomb containing approximately 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 600 at the hands of Gulf War veteran and militia movement sympathizer Timothy McVeigh. It was the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil until the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack.

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Summary: Despite a recent upsurge in threats and violence by far-right groups and loners, the Homeland Security Department appears gun-shy about reporting or monitoring the trend too closely. Domestic security and counterterrorism officials say that even though, in light of recent events, a controversial report issued a year ago by Homeland Security about a “resurgence” in far-right radicalization and recruitment appears well informed, if not prescient, the Department has done nothing to re-issue the report or update it. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 17, 2009, Aubrey Immelman featured abstracts of research projects on the personality characteristics and leadership style of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin, conducted at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics under his direction.

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Summary: John Patrick Bedell, who opened fire at the Pentagon entrance and was killed in a shootout with Pentagon police, was fascinated with conspiracy theories, computer programming, libertarian economics, and the science of warfare. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 5, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that top Democrats believed they had struck political gold by depicting Rush Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party.

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Summary: U.S. agencies are looking into whether al-Qaida extremists in Yemen directed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and provided him with the explosives used in the failed bombing of Northwest Flight 253. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 26, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported a new Homeland Security Threat Assessment for the years 2008-2013, which projects that the terrorism threat to the United States over the next five years will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security, and increasing Internet savvy — with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear [CBRN] attacks considered the most dangerous threats to U.S. national security.

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Summary: Terror alert level raised as a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, claiming ties to al-Qaida, tries to light an apparent explosive powder aboard a commercial jetliner before it lands in Detroit.

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Summary: Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge claims in a new book that he was pressured by other members of President George W. Bush’s Cabinet to raise the nation’s terror alert level just before the 2004 presidential election. … One-year retrospective: On the 38th day of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman announced the August 22 kick-off of a second walking tour, this time a 50-mile campaign swing from Foley in the east to Paynesville on the western boundary of the Sixth Congressional District. … In line with his campaign focus on national security, he also featured a Newsweek interview with Gen. David Petraeus, in which the former U.S. commander in Iraq explained why vigilance was still needed in Iraq and why Afghanistan in some ways poses an even greater security dilemma for the United States.

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