Rep. King Talks With Lou Dobbs About Recent DHS Report Defining Extremists

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
Aired May 5, 2009 - 19:00   ET

DOBBS: Another controversial report and more damage control from the Department of Homeland Security, the same department that issued a report suggesting returning war veterans were susceptible to extremist groups. Also issuing what it calls the quote "domestic extremism lexicon", end quote. It's like a dictionary with definitions for various extremists or terrorist groups and some definitions. Here's an entry.

Anti-immigration extremism -- the Department of Homeland Security's definition -- people who are quote "highly critical of the U.S. government's response to illegal immigration and oppose government programs that are designed to extend rights to illegal aliens, such as driver's licenses and in-state tuition."

Here's another one -- single-issue extremist groups. According to the DHS dictionary, there are individuals who focus on a single cause, such as animal rights or the environment. They are also described as special interest extremists.

And this -- anti-technology extremism. Also referred to as Ned- Luddites. These apparently are individuals who are opposed to technology. A DHS spokesperson today told us the dictionary was not authorized, that it was recalled shortly after it was let out and state and local law enforcement officials have been told to ignore it.

Joining me now Congressman Pete King, ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee. Congressman, great to see you. Thanks for being here.

REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: Thank you, Lou.

DOBBS: Your reaction to this document.

KING: Lou, actually, it's very distressing. You and I can have a lot of fun with this, we could show you ridiculous it is how off- target it is, but the reality is that the department of homeland security is supposed to be defending us against another attack from Islamic terrorism, yet it appears to be the gang that can't shoot straight.

And also to me, it's missing its purpose. You went through all those different definitions of different type of extremists. Nowhere in that dictionary do you see the term "Islamic extremist." The department was set up primarily to protect us from another terrorist attack from Islamic terrorists, and yet they talk about everything but that. Any time they word "terrorist" since Secretary Napolitano took over was several weeks ago when they said the returning veterans and anti-illegal immigration organizations could be terrorists.

So this is really wrong and the fact that it's happened twice now shows that the department is really off control. There's a tremendous lack of discipline here.

DOBBS: My reaction is two things. One, this document could have been produced by someone in china or it could have been produced in the Nixon administration. This is the kind of egregiously offensive product coming from the agency. I mean, I can't even pronounce -- I can't even string the words together that make up this agency. What is going on with this agency? We're also told, by the way, that some of the people in the agency are offended because their work has not been supported.

KING: Yeah, well, too bad for them. The fact is that this, I believe, is a unit that's gotten out of control. By the way, the civil rights unit within the department of homeland security had been opposed to a number of these findings they made, and yet this unit was still able to get this report released. This is something in all seriousness, secretary Napolitano has to address. This seems to be a rogue element in the department, or at least I hope it is. I hope this is not a reflective thinking of the department.

And Lou, what you said is really important. I'm maybe more willing than you are to accept a strong federal role when it involves going after terrorists. But other than that, we need to be very, very careful of having the federal government getting involved in thought control. I mean, I really don't want the federal government to be determining whether or not a person who feels certain ways about the environment or about animals or about certain religious issues should be considered an extremist. That to me is a type of thought control, mind control, which is very dangerous.

I think the department should be set up to target specific terrorist groups that are affiliated with overseas groups who are intending to bring violence to our country. Not people who may have used, that are out of the mainstream by liberal standards or conservative standards or anyone else. We have to -- we cannot allow a department such as this to really try to impinge on free will and free thought.

DOBBS: Congressman, I assure you, I'm as prepared as you to use the federal racehorses to protect the American people at any time. The idea that this department has again committed what looks to be like -- it's beyond political correctness. This is a, to me, it appears to be absolutely agenda driven and with the complicit if acquiescent approval of Janet Napolitano. Is she not to be held responsible for what is a poorly guided, misguided agency?

KING: You're absolutely right. She called me two weeks ago to say they made a mistake on the first report. Now we have the second report. This is back to back. I think she has to produce very, very quickly. Because this is serious. You could have a department that has no real power going off on its own. Okay, maybe it's a waste of money, but no real harm done to the country. You have a department like this, which has real power, making these types of mistakes.

DOBBS: Congressman, this is the same secretary of homeland security who said she didn't want to use the word "terrorism." She had replaced it with the expression man-caused disaster. This is the same secretary of the department of homeland security who told Canadian television that terrorists of September 11th had crossed over the Canadian border. At what point is there accountability?

KING: It has to be very soon. And you're right. She said we cannot call al Qaeda terrorists, we cannot call Bin Laden a terrorist, but it's okay to call a person who opposes illegal immigration a potential terrorist or a returning veteran a potential terrorist or to put out this dictionary where the department is going through its analysis of what kind of thought control we should have. No, Janet Napolitano is running some real risks here and she is going to have to be held accountable very soon. We have a committee hearing coming up in the next week and we're going to really go after it very much.

DOBBS: Congressman King, thanks for being here.

KING: Lou, thank you, as always.