Former Homeland Security Analyst On Being Retaliated Against for Work on White Supremacist Terrorism

[kpete]

Former Homeland Security Analyst Describes Being Retaliated Against for Work on White Supremacist Terrorism

Daryl Johnson worked for the Homeland Security Department and put together a report that was leaked to a “conservative radio shock jock” in southern California named Roger Hedgecock. The report, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” which the shock jock made public in 2009, set off a conservative media frenzy. Media pundits thought the report was alleging conservative groups were populated by “terrorists.” The Homeland Security Department wound up repudiating the report in order to get the ruckus to die down.

Appearing on “Democracy Now!” this morning, he described his unit, which was looking at white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups, experienced retaliation after the right created such a brouhaha:

What happened was quite shocking actually. I never anticipated that the Department of Homeland Security, my employer, would actually clamp down on the unit and stop all of the valuable work we were doing. Leading up to this report, and I will talk about this at length in my book, my team was doing a lot of good things throughout the country. We received numerous accolades from law enforcement, intelligence officials, talking about the great work we were doing in the fight against domestic terrorism. Then in lieu of the political backlash, the department decided to not only stop all of our work, stop all of the training and briefings that we were scheduled to give; but they also disbanded the unit, reassigned us to other areas within the office and then made life increasingly difficult for us. Not only did they stop the work that we were doing, but they also tried to blame us for some of the attacks that were occurring.

The work climate was so oppressive—”They just made it a very difficult environment for me to continue working there”—that he left the department to start his own consulting company.

Johnson and his unit “over a period of over a year, collected a massive amount of data.” It included Internet research and FBI and law enforcement information. A report began to be drafted around the time that Janet Napolitano became Secretary of Homeland Security. Then, Napolitano “wanted to know what was an extremist, what are they doing, what groups were out there that we were concerned about.” She also was curious about whether there had been a ”rise in right wing extremism and whether it was a result of the election of an African-American president” and what we were going to do about it.” These questions were answered in the report.


much much more:
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/08/09/former-homeland-security-analyst-describes-being-retaliated-against-for-work-on-white-supremacist-terrorism/

[uamazeme]

1. Spam deleted by DURHAM D (MIR Team)