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a Program That Might Have Prevented the Dallas and Baton Rouge shootings...

Unitedwestand13

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...Was shut down seven years ago.

From politico

But seven years ago, when a little-known division in the new president’s Department of Homeland Security sought to explore the potential violence of returning veterans—one that might have aided local law enforcement with intelligence in Dallas and Baton Rouge—it was Congressional Republicans who succeeded in pushing to shut the program down.

The intelligence unit, called the Extremism and Radicalization Branch, undertook a sensitive mission when it was founded in the Bush administration in 2004: Studying and monitoring sub-sections of the population for potential signs of ideological and political radicalization. The group’s mandate allowed it to research radicalized groups without criminal cause—a counterterrorism think-tank, of sorts, that circulated early warnings to state and local law enforcement.

But a prediction found in a 2009 report, titled “Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” ignited the rage of conservative and veterans groups across the country. The DHS study warned that returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, traumatized abroad and underserved at home, would pose a particular threat to law enforcement while those two wars scaled down, in part by being drawn to radicalized movements inside the country.

“We were looking at the precursors to terrorism, precursors to criminality, which we call radicalization,” says Daryl Johnson, the unit’s former chief. “If the unit was still functioning today, we would definitely be on top of what’s going on—issuing a threat advisory, talking to law enforcement about how there’s a new emergence of violent groups.”

Johnson’s 2009 report, which was classified only for the eyes of law enforcement, leaked almost immediately, and became the first scandal, real or imagined, of the Obama presidency. It was also the moment when the political career of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano abruptly ground to a halt. “There was a backlash to it by the Republican establishment, as well as Fox News,” says Johnson, who today works in private security consulting that focuses on domestic terrorism. “The day after that thing was leaked, all of our work stopped.”

Hindsight is 20-20

The GOP Shut Down a Program That Might Have Prevented Dallas and Baton Rouge - POLITICO Magazine
 
Both shooters were veterans. Both were also black. If sticking a microscope up the ass of every veteran might have stopped the shootings then doing the same to every black American would be equally appropriate, right? Both were male. Perhaps we should get the FBI to investigate every male for radicalism too. How far do you want to take this ridiculous idea?

This kind of stuff goes right back to Orwell writing a work of fiction, not a political handbook.
 
Both shooters were veterans. Both were also black. If sticking a microscope up the ass of every veteran might have stopped the shootings then doing the same to every black American would be equally appropriate, right? Both were male. Perhaps we should get the FBI to investigate every male for radicalism too. How far do you want to take this ridiculous idea?

This kind of stuff goes right back to Orwell writing a work of fiction, not a political handbook.

As long as you feel the same way about Muslims, then we're on the same page on this issue.
 
As long as you feel the same way about Muslims, then we're on the same page on this issue.

My thoughts on Muslims and terrorism are all over this board. Feel free to find them and read them then ask me that question.
 
Both shooters were veterans. Both were also black. If sticking a microscope up the ass of every veteran might have stopped the shootings then doing the same to every black American would be equally appropriate, right? Both were male. Perhaps we should get the FBI to investigate every male for radicalism too. How far do you want to take this ridiculous idea?

This kind of stuff goes right back to Orwell writing a work of fiction, not a political handbook.

We "lack resources" to enforce immigration law or to vet refugees yet seem to have plenty of resources to "look into" those that incorrectly surf the web showing "right wing" tendencies. What could possibly go wrong with a wee bit more of warrantless searches, metadata collection and analysis? We must protect current government employees from former government employees - national security is at stake.
 
Why would I have a problem with that program ending? Spying on American citizens and thought policing is not really my idea of something the government should be doing.
 
Actually, the 4th, 5th, 8th, and 14th Amendments prevented it from being legal to do in the first place, not the GOP. The GOP only defunded a federal program that violated the US Constitution and the fundamental natural rights and privileges of US citizens protected with in it.

Like i said, hindsight is 20-20.
 
Poor unitedwestand. I don't think this is the way he thought this thread would go.
I really have to question the judgment of anyone who supports the government spying on its citizens without criminal cause is a good idea. What could go wrong.
 
Whomever dreamed up this atrocity needs to have their ass seriously kicked and then given a one way ticket to North Korea. They appreciate this kind of crap over there.

So does our own NSA, merrily collecting metadata for whatever purposes.

I'll go the OP one better--we should investigate how it was so easy for White House occupants to let loose the dogs of war under fraud. Those dogs of war cause society great problems. PTSD damage infects all of society.
 
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