Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Friday referred to a controversial report issued by DHS in April 2009 on the potential for an increased in right-wing extremism as “ancient history.”
TPMDC asked Napolitano at a lunch hosted by the Christian Science Monitor if she thought the report DHS was criticized for issuing on the potential for a rise in right-wing extremism due to the election of Barack Obama has been vindicated in the year and a half since it came out.
Incidents like the allegations against the Hutaree militia, the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the shooting at the Holocaust Museum and the arrest of an ex-Marine with ties to right-wing movements possessing a grenade launcher seem to be right up the alley of what the DHS foreshadowed.
Napolitano — who had apologized to the country’s largest veterans organization for the part of the report that suggesed right wingers were trying to recruit disgruntled soldiers — said that it was time to move on.
“The kind and quality of the products we put out for law enforcement now are so much more operational,” Napolitano said Friday. “What we needed to do in our department was really think through what is it that a standard local fusion center needs — how do we inform them about trends, about tactics, how do we get information back from them. And so that report to me is almost ancient history, and I’ll put it there.”
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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