Am I a Dangerous Extremist? Are You?
If you
should suddenly cease to find my commentaries, I will either have passed away
or have been detained by agents of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or
the Defense Department and taken to an undisclosed location for the crime of
having been an “extremist” and a danger to the nation.
In April 2009, the Washington Times published an article reporting that “The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in ‘rightwing extremist activity’, saying that the economic recession, the election of America’s first black president, and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.”
Among
those targeted by DHS were “groups and individuals that are dedicated to a
single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.” Well, that’s only
a few tens of millions of Americans. Little wonder why, on April 5th,
we learned that a U.S. Army Reserve presentation regarding “extremist threats within the U.S. military included Catholics and evangelicals!
These two
groups represent half of all Americans and some forty percent of active duty
military personnel are evangelical Christians. The Catholics and evangelicals
were lumped in with “white supremacist groups, street gangs, and religious
sects.”
If our current leaders consider
Christians a greater threat than Muslims, then they are idiots with a very
dangerous agenda.
The last
time I read the U.S. Constitution, the Tenth Amendment said that “The powers
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to
the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” The
people—that’s you and me.
In
pre-Revolution America, a bunch of people rebelling against British taxes got
together and threw a great wealth of imported tea into Boston Bay. About ten
other groups in other states did the same thing. Extremists! Those men who
signed the Declaration of Independence? Extremists! A few disgruntled war
veterans! Extremists!
All across
America today, states are passing laws to protect gun owners while others are
tightening limitations on abortion. Are all those state legislators extremists,
too?
Like a lot
of Americans, I have begun to have serious fears about the Department of
Homeland Security, particularly since neither the DHS, nor any other government
agency is permitted to use words like Islamist, Jihadist, or Muslim when
describing groups and individuals dedicated to attacking Americans. The murders
at Fort Hood by an Islamic extremist, U.S. Major Nidal Hasan, are still
officially described as “workplace violence” and those who survived the attack
have been denied Purple Hearts. Apparently no one among his fellow officers
noticed when he showed up in the PX wearing Arab-style clothing.
You can
visit the DHS website and read “Countering Violent Extremism” which says that
“Groups and individuals inspired by a range of religious, political, or other
ideological beliefs have promoted and used violence against the homeland.” Most
have been Muslims. I am still trying to find examples of attacks on the
homeland by Republicans, veterans, evangelicals, or for that matter the pitiful
remnants of the Ku Klux Klan.
DHS
Secretary Janet Napolitano had to issue an apology for the April 2009 slur
against veterans returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to which they
were deployed. She said. “We are on the lookout for criminal and terrorist
activity but we do not—nor will we ever—monitor ideology or political beliefs.”
Thank goodness they were not monitoring meetings of the Veterans of Foreign
Wars or the American Legion. Or maybe they are.
Perhaps
every meeting of the various Tea Party groups around the nation are monitored
for their distinct disagreement with current government policies. They got
their start protesting Obamacare. Many of their members oppose any effort to
restrict their right to own and bear arms under the Second Amendment. Others oppose
abortion. I’m guessing they would be among the first to be swept up as
“extremists” and detained somewhere. And I am a regular contributor to a Tea
Party Nation website!
In the
wake of 9/11 Americans in general and the government in particular were scared
to death of the prospect of more violent attacks on the nation. The Department
of Homeland Security was cobbled together from a number of agencies to better
coordinate information and a response. It’s worth keeping in mind that the
enemy then and the enemy now is still al Qaeda. Our concerns then were such
that we deployed our military to Afghanistan and Iraq to deter the spread of
the Islamist ideology. These days many nations cooperate to identify al Qaeda
leaders and dispatch them.
Al Qaeda
in America doesn’t hold Wednesday night get-togethers, but I am fairly
confident that our law enforcement authorities are doing their best to keep an
eye on its recruitment efforts as they seek to stop further attacks.
What
worries me is that the DHS definition of who they suspect of being “extremists”
is so broad and so vague that there probably isn’t anyone who does not fall
under suspicion.
There’s
something paranoid and dangerous in the way they interpret their mission.
There’s something scary about an agency that buys a billion bullets and equips
itself like a small army. We already have an army and we have a vast law
enforcement community nationwide who, frankly, I trust far more.
So the
question is, are you an extremist? And for exercising my First Amendment rights
of free speech, the publication—press—of my views, my religion, and may even
join others “to petition the government for a redress of grievances”, am I an
extremist, too?
© Alan
Caruba, 2013
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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens
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