Homeland Security leaders defend memo on veterans
By TIM TALLEY - Associated Press Writer
Published: Sun, Apr. 19, 2009 09:41AM
Modified Sun, Apr. 19, 2009 06:20PM
Veterans #1 Enemy, Janet Napolitano


OKLAHOMA CITY -- Top Department of Homeland Security officials on Sunday defended an agency intelligence assessment warning that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan could be susceptible to recruitment by right-wing extremists, though one said it should have been "more tightly written and presented."

Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said on CNN's "State of the Union" that she regrets that some people took offense over the report, but added that "a number of groups far too numerous to mention" were targeting returning veterans to carry out domestic terrorism attacks.

She said the warning report, which went out to American law enforcement agencies two weeks ago, was consistent with earlier reports.
Domestic Terrorism Lute Domestic Terrorism Lute
AP Photo - Jane Lute, deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security, is pictured during an interview with the Associated Press at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum in Oklahoma City, Sunday, April 19, 2009.


The report, which also warned of veterans engaging in lone acts of violence, was criticized by conservatives who called it offensive and said the agency should apologize to veterans.

Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute, in Oklahoma City for ceremonies marking the 14th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, said it is wrong to characterize the report's distribution as an attempt to insult veterans but acknowledged that "it should have been more tightly written and presented."

Lute, an Army veteran and former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations in charge of peacekeeping operations, said the agency was taking "very seriously" the threat that right-wing domestic extremists could use the lagging U.S. economy and the election of the country's first black president to recruit members.

Lute said the agency didn't focus on any one group because of its members' beliefs or backgrounds but that it was more interested in the likelihood that a group might turn to violence.

The report mentioned Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Timothy McVeigh, a decorated Army veteran convicted of detonating an explosives-laden truck in front of the federal building, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds. McVeigh was executed in 2001, and his former Army buddy Terry Nichols is serving multiple life prison terms for his role in the attack.

Lute said her agency assesses all potential hazards and that the Oklahoma City bombing was "a reminder to the country that we can't be complacent."

I read it, now watch everyone freak out. Anyone who thinks it's not possible is naive, considering what is being said all over the internet. But of course ever single word from this administration is suspect right?

OMG! I guess we have gone from patriot veterans to terrorist now..... imagine that!

I can imagine, extended time in a war zone, knowing Obama is selling us out, being lied to, Iraq, seeing and hearing DHS wants to finger them as possible Terrorists and finally realizing, their Gov doesn't have their backs, they just might see using what they're training to set this country back in line with our Constitution and stop the ObamaNation.

Just as I suspected..

"One mans terrorist is another mans freedom figher."...James Bond be seeing you

Veteran and proud of it

screw DHS

You all can screw 'em on second thought, I wouldn't screw 'em with another persons screwer

May I humbly ask? What do you have against the Constitution?

hmmmmmmmm

I think the DHS has watched Rambo too many times

I have nothing against the constitution, I am against bs and making issues of non issues, finding things that aren't actually there, stirring anxiety over things that are not actually happening, and twisting people's words to suite what some precieve to be happening.

Guess we don't actually need the media to twist reality...

I printed the article word for word.
Do you really believe dishonoring the Vet is a non-issue?
Do you not see Obama empowering those who would classify, at will, those who they suspect being terrorists?
You honestly believe, as you stated, it's not happening?
Just because MSM doesn't report it, doesn't mean it's not real.

And just how do they plan on "watching" these groups and veteran's.

DHS, Tea Bag 'em

citizens rising up in revolt is a possibility, that's why our politicians need to remove their heads from their fourth point of contact and wake up to the desires of the nation and not their own agendas

The forth point of contact as SharpShooter was refering to is your BUTT for those of you who dont know

Havent heard that in a while.
Thanks SharpShooter I needed a smile

They didn't say.
Profiling, Military performance record, have they been reported for speaking out against Gov policy, been diagnosed with PTSD, have they signed Obama's oath to Loyalty? Just a few ways I can think of.

Phone tapping, email tapping, observation of extremist groups membership.


Patriot Act is still in effect, Obama didn't change it:
Obama Administration Endorses Continued Spying on Americans

Based on information disclosed by AT&T whistleblower Klein and other sources, including The New York Times, the suit seeks to "halt illegal, unconstitutional, and ongoing dragnet surveillance" by AT&T and other grifting telecoms of the "communications and communications records" of their customers.

Klein told the Court in a sworn affidavit that AT&T's internet traffic in San Francisco runs through fiber-optic cables at the company's Folsom Street facility. Using a device known as a splitter, a complete copy of internet traffic that AT&T receives--email, web browsing requests and other electronic communications sent by AT&T customers, or received from people who use another internet service provider--was diverted onto a separate fiber-optic cable connected to the company's SG-3 room, controlled by NSA. Only personnel with NSA clearances--either working for, or on behalf of the agency--have access to this room.

The evidence of corporate malfeasance presented by Klein and other whistleblowers, led the civil liberties' watchdog group to assert that AT&T's "deployment of NSA-controlled surveillance capability" is not limited to the corporation's San Francisco facility "and is consistent with an overall national AT&T deployment to from 15 to 20 similar sites, possibly more. This implies that a substantial fraction, probably well over half, of AT&T's purely domestic traffic was diverted to the NSA. At the same time, the equipment in the room is well suited to the capture and analysis of large volumes of data for purposes of surveillance."

As I reported in November, among the firms supplying the surveillance products hardwired into America's telecommunications infrastructure is Verint Systems Inc. (formerly Comverse InfoSys). The firm was founded by former Israeli intelligence officer, Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, a corporate grifter who fled the United States for Namibia after being indicted in 2006 on thirty-two counts of fraud. Alexander hatched a backdated stock options scheme that netted him $138 million in profits looted from company shareholders.

While Alexander and his family may be safely ensconced in the dry but relatively safe harbor of Windhoek, Verint's security products live on, providing "actionable intelligence solutions" to repressors world wide. According to a Business Week company profile,

Verint Systems, Inc. provides analytic software-based solutions for the security and business intelligence markets. Its analytic solutions collect, retain, and analyze voice, fax, video, email, Internet, and data transmissions from voice, video and IP networks for the purpose of generating actionable intelligence for decision makers. The company primarily offers communications interception solutions, such as STAR-GATE, RELIANT, and VANTAGE; networked video solutions that include NEXTIVA; and contact center actionable intelligence solutions, which include ULTRA. Verint Systems serves government entities, global corporations, law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, transportation agencies, retail stores, utilities, and communications service providers. (Verint Systems, Inc. Business Week, Information Technology Sector, accessed April 11, 2009)

Other corporate outfits providing similar intelligence "solutions" to America's telecommunications firms and agencies such as the CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency include Verint's rival Narus (another spooky Israeli security firm), Siemans and Ericsson.

Despite the economic meltdown, Washington Technology reported March 27 that "technology companies are poised to tap into the billions of dollars that will flow from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into new federal, state and local initiatives." Many of the initiatives include new corporate welfare projects devised by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to "keep America safe."

In this context, the Obama administration's drive to preserve the NSA's ability to illegally spy on Americans is intimately connected to the corporatist bottom line. After all, Democrat or Republican, the business of government is business.

Arguments in San Francisco federal district court by U.S. Attorneys have been described by constitutional law experts as being "worse than Bush." In their motion to dismiss Jewell, the Obama administration cited the same perverse logic of the previous regime: that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue "out of hand."

Douglas Letter, U.S. Terrorism Litigation Counsel for Obama's Department of Justice, argued that simply allowing the case to proceed "would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security."

Yet more pernicious--and unprecedented--arguments followed. "The DoJ," according to EFF, now claim "that the U.S. Government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying--that the Government can never be sued for surveillance that violates federal privacy statutes."

Arguing that the state possesses "sovereign immunity," the "change" administration now claims that under provisions of the disgraceful USA PATRIOT Act--a draconian law rammed through Congress in the wake of the 9/11 attacks--the state is "immune from suit under the two remaining key federal surveillance laws: the Wiretap Act and the Stored Communications Act."

In practice, this means that under a new, ludicrous interpretation of the Orwellian PATRIOT Act, the government can never be held accountable for illegal surveillance under any federal statute. As Glenn Greenwald points out in Salon,

In other words, beyond even the outrageously broad "state secrets" privilege invented by the Bush administration and now embraced fully by the Obama administration, the Obama DOJ has now invented a brand new claim of government immunity, one which literally asserts that the U.S. Government is free to intercept all of your communications (calls, emails and the like) and--even if what they're doing is blatantly illegal and they know it's illegal--you are barred from suing them unless they "willfully disclose" to the public what they have learned. ("New and worse secrecy and immunity claims from the Obama DOJ," Salon, April 6, 2009)

EFF attorney Kevin Bankston told Salon: "This is the first time [the DOJ] claimed sovereign immunity against Wiretap Act and Stored Communications Act claims. In other words, the administration is arguing that the U.S. can never be sued for spying that violates federal surveillance statutes, whether FISA, the Wiretap Act or the SCA."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13155

I had just read the article about 20 minutes before you posted it, sadly though you posted it word for word, you didn't read it that same way.

Why is that vets in my own family aren't moaning about the same article? Because they know that some vets do flip out and some are not happy with this administration. If some flipped out and shot up a bunch of people and the DHS had not taken notice and had not been on top of things the same people would be moaning that they weren't vigilant.

Tjn,

I think people got the message, Sharpshooter could have said butt but I am sure most knew exactly what he was referring to. If citizens rising up is a possiblity, something I already said and this article said as well, and obviously the DHS is not stupid and knows it too, they have every right to do what they need to do to prepare for violence, no matter who starts it, others will be affected.