Sounds like somebody got some heat for the first report, saying we, the conservatives, are possible terrorist, and to check us out if we do not have the proper bumper sticker on our vehicles.
Missouri Highway Patrol retracts controversial report on militia activity
By JASON NOBLE
The Star’s Jefferson City correspondent
http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1109096.htmlJEFFERSON CITY | The Missouri Highway Patrol this week retracted a controversial report on militia activity and will change how such reports are reviewed before being distributed to law enforcement agencies.
The Highway Patrol also will open an investigation into the origin of the report, which linked conservative groups with domestic terrorism and named former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin.
The Highway Patrol’s announcement followed a news conference in which Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican, suggested putting the director of public safety on administrative leave and investigating how the report was produced.
The uproar revolves around a report released last month by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, a “fusion center” for local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to collaborate on domestic security issues. The report concerned militia movements in Missouri and across the U.S., and described how they had evolved over the last several years.
But it suggested that domestic militias often subscribed to radical ideologies rooted in Christian views and opposition to immigration, abortion or federal taxes. The report also stated that it was “not uncommon” for militia members to support third-party political candidates.
The Highway Patrol’s superintendent, Col. James F. Keathley, released a memo saying the report did not meet the agency’s standard for quality and would not have been released if it had been seen by top officials.
“For that reason,” Keathley wrote, “I have ordered the MIAC to permanently cease distribution of the militia report.”
The memo noted the report was compiled by an employee of the information analysis center and reviewed only by the center director before being sent to law enforcement agencies across the state.
In the future, Keathley wrote, reports from the center will be reviewed by leaders of the Highway Patrol and the Department of Public Safety.
On Thursday, Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, expressed support for Keathley’s order and distanced his administration from the process that allowed the report to be released.
“Under a previous system, MIAC would prepare and distribute these reports to law enforcement agencies without review or approval from the colonel of the Highway Patrol or the director of Public Safety,” Nixon said. “That’s simply not acceptable.”
Conservatives in Missouri and nationally have criticized the report for lumping people with conservative political views in with domestic terrorists and potentially opening them to harassment from law enforcement.
Before Keathley’s memo was released Wednesday, Kinder criticized the report for suggesting that only issues championed by conservatives motivated domestic terrorists. The report “slanders” opponents of abortion and critics of illegal immigration, he said.
“Under the guidance of the present director, who apparently must think it is Nixon’s secret service, the Department of Public Safety has taken on the new and sinister role of political profiling,” Kinder said.
Also troubling Kinder said, the report makes no mention of Islamic terrorists or those who might subscribe to ideologies associated with liberals, such as environmental radicals.
The state’s response to the conservative outcry over the report evolved over the last few weeks. In one early response, the information analysis center released a statement reaffirming its “regard for the Constitutions of the United States and Missouri” and expressing regret that “any citizens or groups were unintentionally offended by the content of the document.”
Then earlier this week, Department of Public Safety Director John M. Britt retracted the portions that noted third party and Republican presidential candidates by name and sent letters of apology to the politicians.
But even with the retraction and the investigation announced Wednesday, Britt should be suspended and the General Assembly should investigate how the report was prepared, Kinder said.
“Director Britt has still not answered any of the questions about what other reports may have been developed and the procedure behind these memos,” Kinder’s spokesman, Gary McElyea, said in a statement. “Until those questions are answered Mr. Britt should be placed on immediate leave.”
Britt had no comment.
To reach Jason Noble, call 573-634-3565 or send e-mail to jnoble@kcstar.com.
