Obama Admin Used Pro-Abortion, Conspiracy Sites to Say Pro-Lifers Extremists
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 12, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The results of an organization’s Freedom of Information Act request reveal the Obama administration relied on pro-abortion and conspiracy theory web sites to compile its report saying pro-life advocates may be "right-wing extremists."
In April, the Obama administration came under fire for releasing a document claiming pro-life people may engage in violence or extremism.
The Department of Homeland Security warned law officials across the country about a supposed rise in "right-wing extremist activity," saying the poor economy and presence of a black president could spark problems.
According to the Washington Times, a footnote attached to the nine-page report from the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis say the activities of pro-life advocates is included in "right-wing extremism in the United States.”
"It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration," the warning said.
In response to the report, the conservative group Americans for Limited Government filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding to know how DHS had arrived at that conclusion.
The group calls the DHS response "stunning" because officials admit that they relied on a range of web sites, including mainstream media web pages, to compile the report.
"As it turns out, Janet Napolitano’s DHS did not conduct even the most rudimentary research or investigation. It did no statistical analysis. It did not even bother to interview those it accused and allow them the opportunity to defend themselves," the group said in a statement today.
"Instead, in what should send shockwaves throughout the nation, DHS functionaries simply cruised the Internet (in tin-foil hats, no doubt) and relied entirely upon some of the most disreputable sites on the web to stage its attack upon its ‘rightwing’ targets," ALG added.
The web site listed the most on which the Obama administration compiled its report is whatdoesitmean.com — a conspiracy theory web site that contends the government of the United States has been in direct contact with extra-terrestrial aliens through sophisticated radio waves.
Obama officials also relied on the pro-abortion blog Huffington Post and the Southern Poverty Law Center, a pro-abortion group, to compile the information in the report.
"During the Watergate hearings nearly three decades ago, Howard Baker said that the pivotal question for Richard Nixon was, ‘What did he know, and when did he know it?’" ALG said in response. "Now, a similar question must be asked of Barack Obama: When did he know, and why didn’t he stop it?"
The group said the response to its FOIA request "reveals that his Department of Homeland Security violated the trust of the American people in ways never even imagined possible by those whose liberty it has placed in jeopardy."
"And the President now needs to come clean and tell the American people when he learned about this horrifying attack on personal freedom and why he did not intervene to end the assault," it concluded.
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