An advisory board at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has controversially identified being religious or serving in the military as markers of domestic extremism.
Documents obtained by America First Legal through litigation, specifically from the now-disbanded Homeland Intelligence Experts Group, revealed these findings. The Board included notable members such as former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
The documents showed that researchers had flagged military service and religious beliefs as indicators of domestic extremism.
“If you ask researchers to dive into indicators of extremists and terrorism, they might indicate being in the military or religious. This being identified as an indicator suggests we should be more worried about these. We need the space to talk about it honestly,” read notes obtained by America First Legal.
The notes also highlighted being a conservative voter as an indicator of domestic extremism.
“There is a political backdrop to all of this,” the notes said. “It seems that most of the Domestic Terrorism threat now comes from supporters of the former president. It is not like you want a political advantage, but people have attacked the government and its institutions for the last six years.”
America First Legal released these notes as part of its “#DeepStateDiaries” series, which aims to shed light on bureaucratic actions within the government. Gene Hamilton, Executive Director of America First Legal, criticized the findings, calling them evidence of “unabashed partisanship” at the DHS.
“These shocking records reveal apparent unabashed partisanship on this Deep State committee,” Hamilton said to Fox News. “All efforts to weaponize the federal government against political opponents of the ruling regime should be stopped. We look forward to exposing more records in the coming days.”
This piece first appeared at TPUSA.
