By Dave Workman
Senior Editor

Firearms owners, veterans’ and conservative groups were uniformly outraged over a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “assessment” that suggested they were all breeding grounds for “rightwing extremism” and might pose a security threat to the United States.

The document was uncovered early last month and has gotten widespread attention on Internet chat forums, and from conservative commentators. Its release added more fuel to concerns among gunowners and other Obama Administration critics that the administration is trying to silence, or at least marginalize and demonize its critics.

Contained in the nine-page document, titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” are chilling allegations that “new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.”

However, DHS earlier this year also issued a similar document titled “Leftwing Extremists Likely to Increase Use of Cyber Attacks over the Coming Decade.” Also spanning nine pages, this report discussed “the potential threat to homeland security from cyber attacks conducted by leftwing extremists.”

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), called the Rightwing Extremism document an outrage.

“It appears that DHS under Janet Napolitano is trying to demonize political dissent,” Gottlieb said. “I guess the phrase ‘dissent is patriotic’ has been removed from the liberal lexicon.”

He condemned the “us-against-them” philosophy that appears to permeate the report. He suggested that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the anti-gun former Arizona governor, apologize for the contents of the report.

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), told Gun Week that the document was “a paranoid rant.”

“What a shame it is,” he said, “that whoever wrote that in Homeland Security is somehow fearing the bravest Americans in our society, the men and women who are heroes who are serving in the American armed forces.”

He suggested that—with such a jaundiced view of returning servicemen and women—the report’s author “isn’t qualified to work at Homeland Security.”

Rather than apologize for the report, Napolitano defiantly announced that she stood by it, despite an outcry from the American Legion and other veterans’ groups.

The DHS document suggests that returning veterans “facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities” could be drawn into domestic terrorist groups or become “lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent acts.” Further aggravating social conservatives, veterans and gun rights activists was the inference that they might be drawn to white supremacist and “violent antigovernment groups.”

“Rightwing extremists have capitalized on the election of the first African American president,” the report stated, “and are focusing their efforts to recruit new members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and appeal through propaganda, but they have not yet turned to attack planning.”

The report also states, “Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS…is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.”

“It’s ironic,” Gottlieb noted, “that President Obama’s friend, William Ayers, is a leftwing terrorist bomber, but nothing in this report suggests monitoring his activities.”

However, in the earlier document, which discussed the potential threats of the Earth Liberation Front, DHS suggested, “Many leftwing extremists use the tactic of direct action to inflict economic damage on businesses and other targets to force the targeted organization to abandon what the extremists deem objectionable. Direct actions range from animal releases, property theft, vandalism, and cyber attacks—all of which extremists regard as nonviolent—to bombings and arson.

“The North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office, the media arm of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), published the following guidance for activists: “By inflicting as much economic damage as possible, the ELF can allow a given entity to decide if it is in their [sic] best economic interest to stop destroying life for the sake of profit.”

The Rightwing Extremist report garnered attention from syndicated talk host Rush Limbaugh, it was discussed by Fox News pundits and has been circulated among gun rights activists. At the time, there was not a similar level of outrage expressed over the Leftwing Extremist assessment.

Particularly disturbing to some critics is the repeated use of the term “rightwing extremist” throughout the document. While the report was not intended for widespread dissemination to the public, the repetitious use of the term alarmed Gottlieb.

“We recognize that many conservative gunowners will feel threatened by this Obama Administration report,” he said.

The report appears to lump all gunowners into this “extremist” category.

“Many rightwing extremist groups perceive recent gun control legislation as a threat to their right to bear arms and in response have increased weapons and ammunition stockpiling,” the report stated, “as well as renewed participation in paramilitary training exercises. Such activity, combined with a heightened level of extremist paranoia, has the potential to facilitate criminal activity and violence.”

“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction,” Gottlieb said in response to that claim. “We feel the appropriate reaction is through the ballot box and jury box. Conservative American citizens shouldn’t be pushed into any acts that could be exploited by the administration to further its agenda. If there are any acts of violence that occur because of the Obama Administration policy of chilling dissent, they bear the blame as much as the perpetrators.

“Anyone in the administration trying to use this technique should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Gottlieb stated. “This administration needs to be reminded that its words and actions have consequences, and irresponsible statements, reports and actions fuel fires that are counterproductive to democracy in America.”

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio described the report as offensive and called on the agency to apologize to veterans.

“To characterize men and women returning home after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable,” said Boehner.

The commander of the veterans group the American Legion, David Rehbein, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano expressing concern with the assessment, which made its way into the mainstream press after conservative bloggers got wind of the analysis.

Rehbein called the assessment incomplete and said it lacked statistical evidence. He said the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by military veteran Timothy McVeigh was one instance of a veteran becoming a domestic terrorist.

“To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical ‘disgruntled military veteran’ is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam,” Rehbein said in the April 13 letter.

Napolitano defended the assessment and others issued by the agency.

“Let me be very clear—we monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States,” Napolitano said in a statement. “We don’t have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown, and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence.”

Napolitano said the department respects and honors veterans and that she intends to meet with Rehbein next week after she returns from a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border and meetings in Mexico City.

The agency describes these assessments as part of a series published “to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States.”

In February, the department issued a report to law enforcement that said left-wing extremist groups were likely to use cyber attacks more often in the next 10 years to further their cause.

The references to military veterans in the latest DHS report angered conservative Republicans.

“The department is engaging in political and ideological profiling of people who fought to keep our country safe from terrorism, uphold our nation’s immigration laws, and protect our constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” said Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL).

Texas Rep. Lamar Smith (R) accused the department of painting “law-abiding Americans, including war veterans, as ‘extremists.’ ”

Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer, the ranking Republican on the House Veterans’ Affairs committee, said it was “inconceivable” that the administration would consider military veterans a potential terrorist threat.