The Department of Homeland Security has warned law officials across the country to the possibility of a rise in “right-wing extremist activity,” saying the poor economy and presence of a black president could spark problems.
According to the Washington Times, a footnote attached to the nine-page report from the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis say the activities of pro-life advocates is included in “right-wing extremism in the United States.”
“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” the warning says.
Note, that no where does the DHS documents say, “It may include all groups and individuals that are dedicated to single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration”, it says “it may include groups and individuals”. It never says “every single group and individual”, or “all groups and individuals”. This of course doesn’t stop the defenders of truth, justice and the American way – or as they are otherwise known, Hannity, Rush, et al. – from taking a warning from DHS to law enforcement agencies, and turning it into a political three ring circus, complete with the little GOP Clown car.
Sean Hannity on his April 16th Fox “News” program talking to that pillar of American virtue, that upholder of the Constitution, that former Marine hero who had to retire in disgrace, Oliver North made this statement, “…they’re (Obama Administration) using harsher language towards conservative talk hosts and people that are pro-life and want to obey immigration laws and that are pro-Second Amendment than they are against Kim Jong-Il and Ahmadinejad and Al Qaeda and some of our enemy combatants and terrorists.”
First Sean, I could be mistaken, but I don’t recall “conservative talk hosts” being mentioned in the DHS report. Hold on let me check…Nope, nothing there.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (April 16th talking to Fox “News” host Neil Cavuto) “I think it’s absurd. I mean, to suggest that the threat should be characterized in partisan philosophical terms is ridiculous…So, at a minimum, it’s unfair, and I think more candidly and bluntly, it’s absurd.”
You’re right Governor Pawlenty, it’s absolutely absurd to think anyone associated with “pro-life” advocates, or “individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion,” would ever commit a violent or possibly extreme act; just absurd.
December 25, 1984: An abortion clinic and two physicians’ offices in Pensacola, Florida were bombed in the early morning of Christmas Day by a quartet of young people (Matt Goldsby, Jimmy Simmons, Kathy Simmons, Kaye Wiggins) who later called the bombings “a gift to Jesus on his birthday.”
March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn of Pensacola, Florida was fatally shot during a protest. He had been the subject of wanted-style posters distributed by Operation Rescue in the summer of the year before. Michael F. Griffin was found guilty of Dr. Gunn’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
August 19, 1993: Dr. George Tiller was shot outside of an abortion facility in Wichita, Kansas. Shelley Shannon was charged with the crime and received an 11-year prison sentence.
June 29, 1994: Dr. John Britton and James Barrett, a clinic escort, were both shot to death outside of another facility in Pensacola. Also shot in the attack was Barrett’s wife June. Rev. Paul Jennings Hill was charged with the killings, received a death sentence, and was executed September 3, 2003.
December 30, 1994: Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, were killed in two clinic attacks in Brookline, Massachusetts. Five other individuals were also wounded in the shootings. John Salvi, who prior to his arrest was distributing pamphlets from Human Life International, was arrested and confessed to the killings. He committed suicide in prison and guards found his body under his bed with a plastic garbage bag tied around his head. Salvi had also confessed to a non-lethal attack in Norfolk, Virginia days before the Brookline killings.
December 18, 1996: Dr. Calvin Jackson of New Orleans, Louisiana was stabbed 15 times, losing 4 pints of blood. Donald Cooper was charged with second-degree attempted murder and sentenced to 20 years.
October 28, 1997: A physician whose name has not been revealed was shot in his home in Rochester, New York.
January 29, 1998: Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, was killed when his workplace was bombed. Nurse Emily Lyons was severely injured in the attack. Eric Robert Rudolph, who was also responsible for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, was charged with the crime and received two life sentences as a result.
October 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot to death at his home in Amherst, New York. His was the last in a series of similar shootings against providers in Canada and northern New York State which were all likely committed by James Kopp. Kopp was convicted of Dr. Slepian’s murder after finally being apprehended in France in 2001.
October 1999: Martin Uphoff set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was later sentenced to 60 months in prison.
May 28, 2000: An arson at a clinic in Concord, New Hampshire on resulted in damage estimated at $20,000. The case remains unsolved.
September 30, 2000: A Catholic priest drove his car into the Northern Illinois Health Clinic after learning that the FDA had approved the drug RU-486. He pulled out an ax before being shot at by a security guard.
June 11, 2001: An unsolved bombing at a clinic in Tacoma, Washington destroyed a wall, resulting in $6,000 in damages.
November 2001: After the genuine 2001 anthrax attacks, Clayton Waagner mailed hoax letters containing a white powder to 554 clinics. Waagner was convicted of 51 charges relating to the anthrax scare on December 3, 2003.
July 4, 2005: A clinic Palm Beach, Florida was the target of arson. The case remains open.
December 12, 2005: Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe threw a Molotov cocktail at a clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana. The device missed the building and no damage was caused. In August 2006, Hughes was sentenced to six years in prison and Dunahoe to one year. Hughes claimed the bomb was a “memorial lamp” for an abortion she had had there.
September 13, 2006:David McMenemy of Rochester Hills, Michigan crashed his car into the Edgerton Women’s Care Center in Davenport, Iowa. He then doused the lobby in gasoline and then started a fire. McMenemy committed these acts in the belief that the center was performing abortions; however Edgerton is not an abortion clinic.
April 25, 2007: A package left at a women’s health clinic in Austin, Texas contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death. A bomb squad detonated the device after evacuating the building. Paul Ross Evans (who had a criminal record for armed robbery and theft) was found guilty of the crime.
May 9, 2007: An unidentified person deliberately set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
December 6, 2007: Chad Altman and Sergio Baca were arrested for the arson of Dr. Curtis Boyd’s clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Altman’s girlfriend had scheduled an appointment for an abortion at the clinic.
January 22, 2009:Matthew L. Derosia, 32, who was reported to have had a history of mental illness, rammed a SUV into the front entrance of a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota.
May 31, 2009: Scott Roeder, 51, fatally shot Dr. George R. Tiller while Dr. Tiller was acting as an usher in his Wichita, Kansas church. Tiller was one of three doctors in the United States who performed late-term abortions. Roeder’s ex-wife, Lindsey, told reporters that her ex-husband was looking to become a martyr for the cause. Roeder had once posted a message on Operation Rescue’s web page, “Tiller is the concentration camp ‘Mengele’ of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgment upon our nation.”
Just 22 examples of how absurd it is to suggest pro-life Americans could ever be capable of extreme actions; 22.
Of course it’s absurd to think anyone attached to the pro-life movement could be considered a domestic terrorist Governor Pawlenty.
I mean, seriously, just because a few fringe organizations in the United States opposing abortion either explicitly or implicitly advocate violence against abortion providers doesn’t make them extreme. Absurd Sir! Completely, and utterly absurd!
It’s just ridiculous to think that fine upstanding organizations like The Army of God, an underground network of activists that believe that the use of violence is an appropriate tool for fighting against abortion, and the American Coalition of Life Activists, who published the Nuremberg Files, a controversial anti-abortion web site which published the names, home addresses, telephone numbers, and other personal information of abortion providers – highlighting the names of those who had been wounded and striking out those of which had been killed.
What’s really absurd is that people like Sean Hannity and Governor Pawlenty are so anti-Obama that they will attempt to vilify a DHS warning against homegrown terrorist threats.
The Liberty Tree 