Gulag Blog

Missouri House of Reps to Hold Hearing on MIAC Report

The Missouri House of Representatives plans to hold a hearing on the MIAC (Missouri Information Analysis Center) report, according to the House website. The hearing will be held on Monday, August 31, at 11:00 AM in the Grove Meeting Room at the Grandview Community Center in Grandview, Missouri. For more information, see the Missouri House website.

	A page from the MIAC report demonizing Chuck Baldwin, Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and patriot groups.

The MIAC report, entitled “The Modern Militia Movement” and dated February 20, 2009, came to light after an anonymous source within Missouri law enforcement sent the report to Alex Jones in March. It specifically describes supporters of presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as “militia” influenced terrorists and instructs the Missouri police to be on the lookout for supporters displaying bumper stickers and other paraphernalia associated with the Constitutional, Campaign for Liberty, and Libertarian parties. Infowars covered the report on March 11, 2009.

MIAC is associated with an effort by the Department of Homeland Security to fund and coordinate 58 fusion centers around the country. The Department has provided more than $254 million from FY 2004-2007 to state and local governments to support the centers,” explains the Department of Homeland Security on its website. Missouri is mentioned as a participant in this federal “intelligence” effort.

The report caused a firestorm of controversy after it was exposed by Jones and Infowars. It received national coverage and was mentioned by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and much of the corporate media.

On March 20, Missouri governor Jay Nixon defended the report. “Both Governor Nixon and the Missouri Information Analysis Center may have acted foolishly in refusing to denounce the report for what it is – a completely inaccurate smear which if anything makes America less safe from terrorists because it identifies as terrorists some of the most patriotic groups one can imagine,” Paul Joseph Watson wrote at the time. “The fact that the document clearly constitutes libel and defamation has not gone unnoticed by Chuck Baldwin, Ron Paul and Bob Barr, who have agreed to pursue legal action if the report is not withdrawn.”

On March 19, Chuck Baldwin told Alex Jones he collaborated with Ron Paul and Bob Barr on a letter that was sent to Missouri officials protesting the MIAC report and the characterization of their supporters as domestic terrorists.

On March 24, the Missouri Department of Public Safety issued an apology to Baldwin, Paul, and Barr. “Portions of that report may be easily construed by readers as offensive to supporters of certain political candidates or to those candidates themselves,” Department of Public Safety Director John Britt wrote in his apology letter. “I regret that those comments were ultimately included in the final report issued by the MIAC.” Britt ordered the references to Baldwin, Paul, and Barr removed, however the document was not pulled from internal circulation or denounced at that time.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t
• 

On March 26, Highway Patrol Superintendent James Keathley put a halt to the report in response to media coverage. “Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder on Wednesday called on the director of the Public Safety Department to be placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of the report,” Keathley announced. In addition, Keathley promised to create a new system in which he and Public Safety Department Director John Britt will review future reports before they are released.

Kinder told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that all groups have extremists, and pointed to eco-terrorists as examples of liberal militia groups that weren’t mentioned in the report.“Apparently it was more important to focus on pro-lifers,” he said.

Americans for Legal Immigration noted on March 26 that the report was heavily influenced by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “The Southern Poverty Law Center was cited as a research source for the ‘Missouri Documents.’ Furthermore, the attempt of these documents to cast suspicion of violent and life threatening behavior on millions of Americans who are concerned about these issues is consistent with the regularly released political materials of both the SPLC and ADL,” a press release issued by the PAC explained.

“When many of us read these Missouri Documents we felt that the false connections, pseudo research, and political attacks found in these documents could have been penned by the SPLC and ADL,” said William Gheen of ALIPAC. “We were shocked to see credible law enforcement agencies disseminating the same kind of over the top political propaganda distributed by these groups.”

The SPLC played an instrumental role in a document subsequently released by the Department of Homeland Security demonizing “rightwing extremists.” On April 22, DHS Secretary Napolitano appeared before the Anti-Defamation League National Leadership Conference in Washington. In a speech, she said that “the ADL and DHS have had some good partnerships. In recent years, the Department has placed our employees in your advanced training school to educate us on the tactics used by extremists and terrorists.”

More recently, the corporate media has teamed up with the SPLC to characterize Americans protesting against Obamacare at town hall meetings around the country as dangerous rightwing terrorists. The corporate media has consistently linked Second Amendment activists and others on the so-called right to terrorism and the media-created myth of a dangerous and violent militia movement.

No comments yet.

Leave a comment