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Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Holder to create homegrown terrorism task force

We don't read of any contrivances submitted by the SPLC to Holder's project in this report, but you can be sure they're into it up to their fisted hand salutes.

June 4, 2014  12:49 PM EDT

Attorney General Eric Holder unveiled his plan to create a new Justice Department task force this week that will focus on the threat of “homegrown” terrorism

By Mikael Thalen | Storyleak

In a video posted to the department’s website Monday, which was later removed, Holder argued that the focus on terrorism should “return” to the U.S. as opposed to remaining overseas.

“We face an escalating danger from self-radicalized individuals within our own borders,” Holder said. “As the nature of the threat we face evolves to include the possibility of individual radicalization via the Internet, it is critical that we return our focus to potential extremists here at home.”

The “Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee,” an admittedly revamped version of Janet Reno’s post Oklahoma City bombing task force, will include U.S. Attorneys as well as members from the FBI and Justice Department’s National Security Division.

Holder pointed to a 2013 Congressional Research Service report that claims domestic terrorism has produced more than two dozen incidents since 9/11 as justification for the task force, specifically noting the Boston Marathon bombing and Fort Hood shooting.

“Horrific terror incidents like the tragic shootings at Fort Hood and last year’s Boston Marathon bombing demonstrate the danger we face from these homegrown threats,” Holder said.

Holder’s announcement comes only days after The Washington Times revealed a chilling Department of Defense directive that details instances in which President Obama believes he would be authorized to use lethal military force against American citizens. A U.S. official speaking with the Times also revealed how the Obama administration considered using military force against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters.

Unsurprisingly, Holder’s announcement fails to mention that the vast majority of domestic terror plots since 9/11 have been created by the FBI, a point noted in the 2012 New York Times piece “Terrorist Plots, Helped Along by the F.B.I.

In reality, Holder’s task force will undoubtedly focus on the Obama administration’s political enemies, mainly returning military veterans, conservatives and those who identify with the Tea Party. Such groups have been increasingly linked to terrorism by multiple federal agencies.

Just last month, a military whistleblower revealed documents to Infowars that showed how a military training center in North Carolina, also used to train police and the DHS, was updated to include a Baptist church and farmhouses. Once modeled after foreign cities, training centers, such as the U.S. Army’s new 300-acre “fake city” in Virginia, are now being modeled after U.S. towns and cities instead.

Last October, Army troops at Mississippi’s Camp Shelby alerted media after a new training course labeled the American Family Association, a mainstream Christian ministry, as a domestic hate group similar to the Ku Klux Klan. A seperate briefing told officers to keep an eye on troops who supported such groups, insinuating that they were a domestic terror threat.

That same month, soldiers at Fort Hood were told that Christians, Tea Party supporters and anti-abortion activists were a major terror threat as well. Soldiers were told that support for such groups could result in disciplinary action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Department of Defense training manual obtained by conservative watchdog Judicial Watch in August 2013 listed supporters of “individual liberties” as likely “extremists.”  The manual also warned military personnel to avoid  “active participation” in such groups, even banning them from “publicly demonstrating,” “rallying” and “fundraising.”

A 2012 report from the Small Wars Journal featured in Forbes even went as far as explaining “how the U.S. Military would crush a Tea Party rebellion.”

A Department of Homeland Security funded study uncovered in 2012 characterized Americans “suspicious of centralized federal authority” and “reverent of individual liberty” as “extreme right-wing” terrorists. The study also links Americans who believe their “way of life” is under attack to terrorism as well.

In line with President Obama’s DoD directive, a leaked US Army Military Police training manual from 2012 also outlined how the military would be used against U.S. citizens during civil unrest. The manual even detailed how Americans would be “re-educated” under U.S. Army FM 3-19.40 Internment/Resettlement Operations to support all U.S. policies.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to disown a 2009 report that labeled returning military veterans as the main terror threat. Incredibly, a story in New York Times published during the same time period revealed how Boy Scout Explorers were being trained to kill “disgruntled Iraq war veterans.”

Holder’s decision becomes even more apparent in light of the Obama administrations recent decisions regarding foreign terrorism. In 2013, President Obama brazenly waived a federal law designed to stop the US from arming terrorists in order to provide military support to the Al-Qaeda run “Syrian rebels.”

Attempting to stay afloat in a sea of scandals, the Obama administration has become increasingly desperate to regain a positive public image. Given the documented history of the federal government’s involvement in facilitating terrorism, the administration will likely do whatever it can to create the necessary scenario to bolster its executive power.

(Photo: whitehouse.gov)
This article originally appeared on Storyleak.