The story should be familiar by now. Back in March, the Missouri Information and Analysis Center produced a report called “The Modern Militia Movement,” which profiled Constitutionalists, voters for third-party candidates, and voters for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul as potential terrorists. The three candidates--Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, and Ron Paul--insisted upon and received an apology from the State of Missouri. The Missouri House of Representatives is now considering House Bill 1138, which would establish oversight over the MIAC fusion center. Surely the lesson has been learned--that profiling political groups is not constitutional, and that writing reports like these does not make us safer.
But the reports keep coming, this time from the Department of Homeland Security. Another report, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.” profiles virtually the same groups, but this time, no apology is forthcoming and there is no redaction of information. Indeed, despite the articulately worded title, DHS has overlooked something important when it decided to write this report.
I’m in the information business. Where I work, there is one important rule. Cite your sources. The more the better. The more *reliable* the sources are, the better your research is.
Representative Peter King of New York has sponsored House Resolution 404, which would give the Department of Homeland Security two weeks to reveal the sources of its “Rightwing Extremism” report. According to King, DHS released this report in defiance of advice given by DHS’ own Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties…and, indeed, the resolution asks for “any written opinion or guidance produced” by this office.
The other issue concerns DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis. This resolution would also examine the sources of the information collected by this office and how it was disseminated to “State, local, and tribal law enforcement.” Why is this important? The Office of Intelligence and Analysis provides information from DHS to the fusion centers. And the fusion centers give information to more local law enforcement about potential terrorists.
Although House Resolution 404 had been recommended by the House Committee on Homeland Security for a vote and had been placed on the House Calendar as of June 4th, the resolution still has not come to the floor for consideration. Understandably, distractions such as the healthcare bill and events such as the von Brunn Holocaust Museum shooting may have caused many in Congress to delay consideration of this resolution.
There is, however, another intervening factor…one which perhaps makes King’s request a superfluous one. A group called Americans for Limited Government filed a Freedom of Information Act Request on April 17th, also asking for the sources used in the DHS “Rightwing Extremism” report. A partial list of the sources has already been released. The sources are thin indeed. Many of them describe police shootings by mentally disturbed people, *not* the organized actions of militias. One prominent source is the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization which has already unfairly connected persons on the right with hate groups and is surely not unbiased. If these sources are representative of the kind of research DHS does, Napolitano has a bit of explaining to do.
And while she’s at it, could she please explain why she continues to write reports in defiance of the Code of Federal Regulations, which prohibits law enforcement from collecting information about persons based solely on their political beliefs?
It is most enigmatic, the question of why Representative Peter King has interested himself in this issue. King is also the sponsor of HR 2159, “Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009,” which would not allow suspected terrorists to purchase a firearm. And how would the FBI, who runs the National Instant Criminal Background Check Database--required to be checked by federal firearms dealers--decide who is a potential terrorist? Since the FBI is a partner organization with the fusion centers, the profiles DHS outlines in its “Rightwing Extremism” report could be used to determine who is a “suspected terrorist.” Even if House Resolution 404 passes, the information from the “Rightwing Extremism” report can still be used by law enforcement to harass dissidents, since asking for its sources is not the same thing as noticing its unconstitutionality or asking for its redaction. If Rep. King is looking for a way to tame his guilty conscience, he should be warned that House Resolution 404 will do little to soothe the beasts on the right.
References:
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”
http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf
House Resolution 404
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-hr404/show
Department of Homeland Security Office of Information and Analysis
http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/gc_1220886590914.shtm
Americans for Limited Government FOIA
http://www.getliberty.org/files/DHS-FOIARequest.pdf
Interim Response, Americans for Limited Government FOIA
http://www.getliberty.org/files/09-502%20Interim%20Response%201.pdf
Summary of Web Sources provided in response to the FOIA
http://www.getliberty.org/files/09-502%20Interim%20Response%20Website%20Links.pdf
Code of Federal Regulations, Title 28, part 23: Criminal Intelligence Operating Systems. 23.20: Operating Principles
http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=14e8514960058e4223f57e3cb933acfb&rgn=div8&view=text&node=28:1.0.1.1.24.0.4.4&idno=28
HR 2159, “Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009”
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2159/show
Critique of FBI databases, HR 2159: “Rightwing in the Crosshairs” (in case you missed it!)
http://periculosae.blogspot.com/2009/07/rightwing-in-crosshairs-hr-2159-denying.html
Friday, August 14, 2009
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