State Apologizes to Paul, Barr & Baldwin Over MIAC Report

But “domestic terror” smears against anti-abortion, anti-gun control, bumper sticker political activists will remain

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The uproar that ensued as a result of our original story about a document issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center which smeared third party supporters as potential domestic terrorists has forced the Missouri Department of Public Safety to issue an apology to Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr. However, references to people who are anti-abortion, anti-gun control, knowledgeable about the Constitution and even those who simply display political bumper stickers will remain.

As we revealed in our exclusive report two weeks ago, a leaked secret report distributed by the federal Missouri Information Analysis Center lists Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who display bumper stickers, people who own gold, or even people who fly a U.S. flag and equates them with radical race hate groups and terrorists.

The MIAC report specifically describes supporters of presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as “militia” influenced terrorists and instructs the Missouri police to be on the lookout for supporters displaying bumper stickers and other paraphernalia associated with the Constitutional, Campaign for Liberty, and Libertarian parties.

The MIAC report (PDF) does not concentrate on Muslim terrorists, but rather on the so-called “militia movement” and conflates it with supporters of Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, the so-called patriot movement and other political activist organizations opposed to the North American Union and the New World Order.

Even after an uproar ensued as a result of widespread media coverage of the report, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon had the temerity to stand behind the document despite its blatantly erroneous content and blasé defamation.

However, days after Paul, Baldwin and Barr signed a joint letter demanding that references to themselves and their affiliated political groups be removed from the report, along with a hint of legal action if this didn’t occur, the Missouri Department of Public Safety has issued a formal apology.

“Portions of that report may be easily construed by readers as offensive to supporters of certain political candidates or to those candidates themselves,” Department of Public Safety Director John Britt wrote in his apology letter to Paul, Barr and Baldwin. “I regret that those comments were ultimately included in the final report issued by the MIAC.”

“Unfortunately, in the course of preparing this report, some regrettable information was included in the report on militia groups in Missouri,” Britt wrote. “While the intent of the report was only to identify certain traits that are sometimes shared by members of militia organizations, this report is too easily misinterpreted as suggesting that militia members may be identified by no other indicator than support for a particular candidate or political organization.”

“I have ordered that the offending report be edited to excise all reference to Ron Paul, Bob Barr or Chuck Baldwin,” the letter concludes, without a promise to retract the report altogether, much to the chagrin of the multitude of other banal groups demonized as potential domestic terrorists.

Missourians United For Life, an anti-abortion group, has filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union against Governor Nixon following his public support of the document.

“What Governor Nixon is telling Missourians is if you disagree with him on the issue of life or display a pro-life bumper sticker or wear a pro-life pin, you may subjected to action by state law enforcement or your personal information might be sent to a law enforcement analysis center,” said Ed Martin, President of Missourians United for Life. “This is a clear violation of Missourians civil rights. The only intent of such a report by Nixon’s Administration is to harass and intimidate the governor’s perceived political enemies and chill speech and open debate by those who disagree with Jay Nixon on public policy.”

State Rep. Shane Schoeller of Willard added his criticism to the furore, stating, “I don’t want to evolve into a society where people are watched just because they’re out participating in some freedom of speech activity.”

The fact that the bulk of the report, which equates pro-life groups, political activists and people knowledgeable about the Constitution with domestic terrorists like Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph, will not be redacted, proves that the battle is not over.

Outrage over the wholesale defamation of some of the most patriotic and informed groups of American citizens and attempts to educate police that they should be treated as an “enemy” should not subside just because the state has issued a meek apology to Paul, Barr and Baldwin alone.

The entire report needs to be repudiated in order to create a precedent that educating police with this kind of garbage is an insult to the very oath that they swore by in the first place.

bumper stickers to support a view must mean someone is in a militia?

You got it and lord forbid you have a pocket constitution.

War,

Governor Nixon is the new Governor for my state. I did a search for more info. about this. All that I can find is stuff on Ron Paul links.
I can't find anything in my newspaper.

winx...I couldn't either but I did read it before on Ron Paul's site. so I don't know

This originaly was something that the FBI released to the states 'Profiling' possible domestic terrorists...

It was originally released a year or more ago.

You might find it on an official state police web page or a local sheriff web page but I doubt it.

Bet they pulled it all as soon as the national news got ahold of it.

Adventure,

I'm trying to find more info. on it. I don't think it was from a year ago. Maybe you're thinking about something similar to this. Governor Nixon is my new Governor. He wasn't here a year ago.

I was able to find this story...

Missouri report on militias, terrorists draws criticism
The Associated Press
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The Feb. 20 report called "The Modern Militia Movement" mentions such red flags as political bumper stickers for third-party candidates, such as U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, who ran for president last year; talk of conspiracy theories, such as the plan for a superhighway linking Canada to Mexico; and possession of subversive literature.

"It seems like they want to stifle political thought," said Roger Webb, president of the University of Missouri campus Libertarians. "There are a lot of third parties out there, and none of them express any violence. In fact, if you join the Libertarian Party, one of the things you sign in your membership application is that you don't support violence as a means to any ends."

But state law enforcement officials said the report is being misinterpreted.

Lt. John Hotz of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said the report comes from publicly available, trend data on militias. It was compiled by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, a "fusion center" in Jefferson City that combines resources from the federal Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. The center, which opened in 2005, was set up to collect local intelligence to better combat terrorism and other criminal activity, he said.

"All this is an educational thing," Hotz said of the report. "Troopers have been shot by members of groups, so it's our job to let law enforcement officers know what the trends are in the modern militia movement."

But Tim Neal, a military veteran and delegate to last year's state GOP convention, was shocked by the report's contents.

"I was going down the list and thinking, 'Check, that's me,'" he said. "I'm a Ron Paul supporter, check. I talk about the North American union, check. I've got the 'America: Freedom to Fascism' video loaned out to somebody right now. So that means I'm a domestic terrorist? Because I've got a video about the Federal Reserve?"

Neal, who has a Ron Paul bumper sticker on his car, said the next time he is pulled over by a police officer, he won't know whether it's because he was speeding or because of his political views.

"If a police officer is pulling me over with my family in the car and he sees a bumper sticker on my vehicle that has been specifically identified as one that an extremist would have in their vehicle, the guy is probably going to be pretty apprehensive and not thinking in a rational manner," Neal said. "And this guy's walking up to my vehicle with a gun."

But Hotz said using factors in the report to determine whether someone could be a terrorist is not profiling. He said people who display signs or bumper stickers from third-party groups are not in danger of harassment from police.

"It's giving the makeup of militia members and their political beliefs," Hotz said of the report. "It's not saying that everybody who supports these candidates is involved in a militia. It's not even saying that all militias are bad."



http://www.kansascity.com/116/story/1086524.html

More and more I see, that they just want to pi$$ off a whole lot of people for i don't know what reason.

Its called misdirection!!! Takes you away from whats happening!!!!

so what is really happening?

the sky is falling!!

doubt that quie. I was asking temp to explain further his thoughts

No accually Im seeing a improvement in the housing market here and we were one of the hardest hit!!! IT works both ways. Bad and Good!!!

Your governor may be new...

But this Domestic Terrorist Profiling is not. FBI put out a memo to state police and sheriff departments roughly a year ago.

it listed in priority the things to watchfor.

1. Verbal support of the bill of rights.
2. Verbal language relating to the Constitution.
3. Speaking out in public forums (such as town meetings) in support of either of the above (if the local authorities felt you were a disruption).

there were many other items on the list. Warmachine might even know where the thread on it is cause it was discussed at length by several of us when mingle was JSH.

Someone has taken a bit of old news and refreshed it.

and it is still as shocking as it was when I first read about it.

As sickening as it is, AB, this is current news and not just refreshed... probably more like a continuation of the original plans.

MIAC issued this report not as something that they had on file for a few years, but as a training tool for law enforcement.

Gov. Nixon came out and defended this report on Mar. 19th. They issued a meek apology to Paul/Baldwin/Barr, but have made it clear that the basics of the report are still to be used as a profiling tool.

Winx, I'm not surprised, your MSM there didn't want to talk about the pro-obama members of your state government considering threatening people with lock up if they thought folks were lying about Mr.Obama.

The MIAC report by the way isn't just a MO thing, there's alot of unconfirmed evidence that this report is being circulated nationwide.

That's creepy.

This was in my newspaper today:

Missouri Highway Patrol rescinds controversial militia report
By Roseann Moring
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/26/2009

Jefferson City — A report about modern militia activity will no longer be distributed to Missouri law enforcement officers after receiving nationwide criticism that it contains political profiling.

The decision came Wednesday, hours after Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder called for Department of Public Safety Director John Britt to be placed on leave because of the report, which said followers of third-party political candidates might be militia members.

But the superintendent of the Missouri Highway Patrol said Britt wasn't to blame. Instead, Col. James Keathley said, the issue is a flawed oversight system, which will be revamped. Keathley said the report was sent to highway patrol members without being reviewed by him or Britt.

Since the report was leaked to the public earlier this month, it has been criticized by conservatives and third-party candidates.

The report was produced by the Missouri Information Analysis Center as a guide for state troopers. The center, created by the Department of Homeland Security after Sept. 11, is a means to share security information between different entities.

The report, titled, "The Modern Militia," specifically mentioned 2008 presidential candidates Republican Ron Paul, Libertarian Bob Barr and the Constitution Party's Chuck Baldwin. It said that militia members "most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups."

Britt apologized on Monday to the three candidates for the inartful way in which one section of the report was written.

"Upon review and reflection, it is the judgment of the Department of Public Safety that the report should have made no reference to supporters of Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin or of any other third-party political candidates," wrote Britt, who is a former Secret Service agent.

In the letter to the three candidates, he promised to redact the section in question.

Missouri Libertarian Party spokesman Mike Ferguson said his party is happy with Britt's apology, although they support the efforts of other groups to look at other parts of the report.

The response hasn't satisfied Kinder. He criticized the public safety director's apology for not mentioning another aspect of the report, which included militant anti-abortion as an ideology sometimes espoused by militia members. Kinder pointed to other groups, such as eco-terrorists, not mentioned in the report.

"There was no mention of this, because apparently it's more important to focus on pro-lifers," he said.

Kinder spokesman Gary McElyea said Keathley's statement doesn't change Kinder's position. "The buck stops with him (Britt) and the governor, and either the governor or Britt should be willing to sit down and answer these questions," McElyea said.

Keathley didn't make it clear which parts of the report or which complaints his statement addresses. State patrol Capt. Tim Hull said this center produces such reports independently, meaning neither Nixon nor Britt asked for the data.

Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the first time the governor saw the report was when it showed up in the media, and the office supports Keathley's changes. Holste said the governor would leave the enforcement of the new policies to Britt.

The report first appeared on the website of conservative radio commentator Alex Jones. Jones said a law enforcement officer gave it to him.

Department spokesman Mike O'Connell said the department isn't debating the accuracy of the version online, but wouldn't provide a copy of the report.

Post-Dispatch reporter Tony Messenger contributed to this report.

You can read a copy of the report here.
www.scribd.com/doc/13290698/The-Modern-Militia-MovementMissouri-MIAC-Strategic-Report-20Feb09-