Half-hearted Apology

Napolitano issued a half-hearted apology last Thursday after naming war veterans as a possible threat to the security of the United States.

"This was an assessment, not an accusation," Napolitano continued. "It was limited to extremists those who seek to commit violence within the United States. And all this was meant to do was to give law enforcement what we call 'situational awareness.'"

A footnote in the report,

"Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling
Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," said that while there is no
specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are planning acts of
violence, such acts could come from unnamed "rightwing extremists" concerned
about illegal immigration, abortion, increasing federal power and restrictions
on firearms -- and singled out returning war veterans as susceptible to
recruitment.

She said that this was similar to a report on left wing extremist issued earlier. But there is a big difference; in the earlier report she named specific groups like the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front. Here she named almost all veterans as a possible threat.

"The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist
groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned or
suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today," the
report reads.

She is making a reference to the Oklahoma City Bombing as an example of possible threats. Primarily because this was the only recent example she could find of a veteran doing this sort of thing. Funny that she failed to mention the Washington D.C. sniper who was killing because of his extremist Muslim beliefs (no I don't think all Muslims are terrorists, I know many who are appaled by their extremist brothers). She says she mentions McVeigh because she says that McVeigh received his training in the Army in how to do this sort of thing. I am sorry to inform her, but I have been to US Army Combat Engineer training, and they did not cover blowing up multi-story buildings with truckloads of fertilizer, nor did they cover it when I had my training as an Army Cavalry Scout. And both of these professions cover explosives in great detail as much of their job includes destroying obstacles in both as an offensinve force and as a blocking action in the retreat. While it was effective (Oklahoma City bombing), the military has much better methods of destroying buildings, if you don't believe it just ask the people of Baghdad. So I feel pretty confident that he didn't learn that in the U.S. Army.

If this is the type of person assessing our threat level we are in even more trouble than I thought we were.

Here are some of the official responses to her apology:

"The American Legion is well aware and horrified at the pain inflicted during
the Oklahoma City bombing, but Timothy McVeigh was only one of more than 42
million veterans who have worn this nation's uniform during wartime," Rehbein
wrote. "To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical
'disgruntled military veteran' is unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole
example of Islam."

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, also criticized the report,
saying its portrayal of veterans was "offensive and unacceptable."

"Their leftwing assessment identifies actual terrorist organizations, like the
Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front," House Judiciary Committee
Ranking Member Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said in a statement issued Wednesday. "The rightwing report uses broad generalizations about veterans, pro-life groups,
federalists and supporters of gun rights. That's like saying if you love
puppies, you might be susceptible to recruitment by the Animal Liberation Front.
It is ridiculous and deeply offensive to millions of Americans."