A disturbing pattern is emerging with Barack Obama. He is routinely forgetting who America’s friends and allies are, and finding common cause with those who would wish us great harm.
As ALG News reported, the Department of Homeland Security “rightwing extremism” memo was nothing more than a witch hunt. It lists numerous potential ideological causes for violent acts but does not report on any known attacks or any groups planning attacks, or any groups with a prior history of violence that are currently conducting any types of operational recruitment, meeting, or planning attacks.
What’s worse is it broadly defined “rightwing extremism” such that the memo targeted tens of millions of Americans across the country without cause. For example, if you were pro-life, believed in protecting the borders from infiltration, or were a Constitution-loving federalist—or even attend “Tea Parties,” you are a real or imagined enemy of the state. And if you are a returning veteran, you are a prime target for Big Government’s eye in the sky. It also targeted returning veterans as potential targets for recruitment by unnamed “rightwing extremist” groups.
However, the memo does not actually report any active recruitment by “right-wing extremists” of veterans or anybody else. By implication the DHS does not have any intelligence that any groups actually are recruiting.
Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD)—no conservative by any construction of the definition—believes that the memo was presumptuous. He said in a recent interview with the Washington News Observer in response to a question about the memo that “you don’t label people because you disagree with their views or they do things that are unpopular as threats. You have to have credible information.”
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano only went as far to ostensibly apologize “for any offense to our veterans caused by this report…” but offered nothing for the millions of gun-owners, border advocates, pro-lifers, or believers in states’ rights. By omission they must assume they are still targets.
Napolitano has stated that the Department has “fixed the internal process that allowed this document to be released before it was ready.” Americans for Limited Government is not so sure. ALG President Bill Wilson recently filed a freedom of information request precisely to find out what that process was. Millions of Americans have a right to know why the government sworn to protect them has chosen to target them instead.
But that’s only the beginning of a set of policies that can only come to a bad end.
While targeting political opponents at home, Barack Obama is also systematically dismantling the CIA charged with targeting enemies abroad.
Through first politicizing intelligence gathering techniques that have arguably saved the lives of thousands of Americans, maligning the U.S. detention of prisoners of war, and appearing poised to prosecute those who have risked much to protect their nation, the Obama Administration’s turning a blind eye to those who actually mean the homeland great harm by hamstringing those who could stop the sword before it falls.
Writes Ronald Kessler for Newsmax.com, “Obama has demonized CIA officers for following instructions from the highest levels of the U.S. government. He has raised the specter of prosecutions, saying it would be up to Attorney General Eric Holder whether to charge those who gave legal opinions authorizing the tactics.” This in turn, according to Kessler, has a paralyzing effect on intelligence officers, who now cannot be certain if their operations carried out today will not be utilized in a political witch hunt tomorrow.
This is a lot like the Obama Administration’s posture to foreign affairs: making friends with America’s enemies while insulting or abandoning America’s allies. Whether Obama is cuddling up with Hugo Chavez, coddling the Castro Brothers, winking at Daniel Ortega, or nodding to Mahmoud Ahmadhinejad, he is applying the soft soap in areas where a hard line has been essential to survival.
At the same time, seemingly entranced by the dulcet tones of his own voice, Obama offers proclamations that are narcissistically naive. For example, why is he advocating for nuclear disarmament worldwide while giving little but lip service to North Korea’s rush towards a Doomsday scenario. Why extend an olive branch to Iran while the mad mullahs brandish the lash towards our Israeli ally? And why open the door to Cuba while the Castro brothers slam it shut in his face?
In the meantime, one has to question whether Taiwan or South Korea will be safe from aggression from communist regimes in China or North Korea. Or how far the U.S. under Obama will let Russia go in dominating Europe economically, politically, or even militarily. Will Georgia long remain a democracy when the Russian hierarchy is eyeing up its oil? What about the other former Soviet satellites? They may only be as well off as those in the CIA who thought freedom was worth the fight.
All of which paints a rather bleak picture of the nation’s attitude towards security under a man who is naïve at best—and icily indifferent at worst.
Taken together, this disturbing pattern emboldens America’s enemies abroad, senselessly dismantles America’s intelligence capability and demoralizes those in its community, and turns its surveillance apparatus against its own citizenry.
Henry Kissinger once warned that the only thing more dangerous than being America’s enemy is being America’s friend. Or, under Barack Obama, being America, itself.
Robert Romano is the Senior Editor of ALG News Bureau.
