"Swearing at the Government"
Several times throughout this part of the report Keller mentions the
Oath Keepers. He even has a whole section entitled "Swearing at the Government". If you haven't heard of the Oath Keepers, they are a group of ex-military and law enforcement that are reaffirming their oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Keller sees someone as believing in the Constitution as a bad thing. He sees it as swearing at the government.
He notes that they held an oath event on April 19, 2009 - the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington Green that started the Revolutionary War. However Keller doesn't see it for what it was, he believes that they did so because it was also the day that Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. It also happens to be the day that Waco occurred as that is why McVeigh chose that date. He ties the two together. Therefore Keller concludes that the Oath Keepers are a militia organization bent on terrorism.
I'm surprised that Keller didn't make the connection that the day after April 19 was April 20! That happens to be Hitler's birthday and there are a slew of wacko things that have occurred on April 20. How do I know this? They mention it in every documentary on the Columbine shootings. Could the fact that the Oath Keepers held their event the day before April 20 actually be telling as to their future? I don't want to give Keller any help, but it's quite obviously the case isn't it? It's no different than the connections he made above.
The Oath Keepers swear "Our oath is to the Constitution, not to the politicians, and we will not obey unconstitutional (and thus illegal) and immoral orders,"
To this Keller once again uses the "referencing the SPLC work in another document" trick, this time with an April, 2009 DHS report they contributed to.
"That same pugnacious attitude was on display after conservatives attacked an April report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that suggested a resurgence of radical right-wing activity was under way." Says Keller.
The April DHS report pushes the same SPLC theme. They have managed to get SPLC sympathizers into our Department of Homeland Security in order to have the government do their dirty work for them by putting out reports.
In the Washington Times on April 14, 2009, in an article entitled Federal Agency Warns of Radicals on Right, Mark Potok confirmed that indeed the April, 2009 report from the DHS had information in it coming from the SPLC.
" [Mark] Potok ... was generally pleased with the report.
'Basically, the report tracks fairly closely with what we have been saying for some time now. They mention us a couple of times, though not by name,' he said."
"The 'report' was one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I'd ever read out of DHS. I couldn't believe it was real." said
Michelle Malkin at the time.
"Rightwing extremism ... is primarily hate-oriented ... and those that are mainly anti-government ... It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration." said the DHS report.
Amazingly the SPLC uses the same exact definitions in this militia report as those used by the DHS back in April, which used SPLC-supplied information.
Keller tries hard to turn the Oath Keepers into a militia. He does so by pulling out quotes he found online by people claiming to be members of the Oath Keepers. In other words Keller just believes that they are members and hasn't actually done any research for this "report". After all he found them on YouTube, so they must be true.
He pulls these two out: "We will not fear our government; they will fear us," and "I would rather die than be a slave to my government."
Either of these statements could have been made by Thomas Jefferson or Patrick Henry. As a matter of fact, they were:
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. - Thomas Jefferson"
Keller takes exception with Oath Keeper's founder Stewart Rhodes who had this to say: "We know that if the day should come where a full-blown dictatorship would come, or tyranny - it can only happen if those men, our brothers in arms, go along and comply with unconstitutional, unlawful orders,"
I find absolutely nothing wrong with that statement by Stewart Rhodes and neither would most Americans. Indeed in order for a full blown dictatorship to occur then members of the military would have to unlawfully infringe on the rights of citizens.
Keller suggests that there is a wider conspiracy among the Oath Keepers though. Citing the leak of the two reports mentioned (the MIAC report and the DHS report) above he implies that it is because of "militia" (his definition including "Patriots") infiltration into law enforcement organizations.
"... the leak of the DHS report, along with those of a couple of similar law enforcement reports, was likely the work of a sworn officer" Keller says.
Keller almost seems offended that the reports were leaked. That their secret at the SPLC of managing to sneak their opinions on who is a racist or militia member into official law enforcement and DHS documents was exposed. That it must have been a conspiracy!
The reality is that any law enforcement person, on the right or the left could see that both of these reports were asinine in their content. There was no conspiracy against the government in their release by some secret militia agents. There was simply outrage that Americans would be attacked for their political choices and speech.
Continue To Part Four
