Well, looks like someone else is asking the same questions as some of us here.
More below
Mission Statement of the Department of Homeland Security:
The Department of Homeland Security has a vital mission: to secure the nation from the many threats we face. This requires the dedication of more than 240,000 employees in jobs that range from aviation and border security to emergency response, from cybersecurity analyst to chemical facility inspector. Our duties are wide-ranging, but our goal is clear - keeping America safe
http://www.dhs.gov/...
Yearly budget for the DHS: $60-$80 Billion dollars.
This past Monday, when FBI Special Agent Teresa Carlson briefed reporters on the shooting rampage at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that left six people dead, she said law enforcement had no prior indication that the shooter, Wade Michael Page, had been dangerous. "As far as I know, no law enforcement agency had any reason to believe that he was planning or plotting or capable of such violence," she said.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which maintains an archive of published material from white supremacists and other hate groups, says that Page, who played in white supremacist rock bands and was involved with a skinhead group called the Hammerskins, began showing up in their database as early as 10 years ago. "There are hundreds of people involved in neo-Nazi groups and skinhead bands, maybe thousands, who say and write the kind of violent things that this guy did," notes Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project. "The ability to figure out who is going to actually do [violence] is not easy. This stuff is protected [speech] and most people don't commit violence."
DHS used to monitor the domestic hate forums. Working under Secretary Janet Napolitano, Johnson headed a team of analysts devoted to ferreting out domestic terrorism. Several of their referrals, he says, led to criminal cases. But conservatives went ballistic over his team's 2009 report on the threat posed by right-wing extremists.
Concern that monitoring of "extremists" could result in spying on Americans engaged in lawful political activity is legitimate, since it's certainly happened before. But while Johnson's report was meant to focus on violent right-wing extremist groups—not your average Republican voter—conservative commentators still felt persecuted. The Obama administration, they claimed, was targeting mainstream conservatives and Tea Party activists. Hot Air blogger Ed Morrisey wrote that the report was an attempt to "smear half of the country or more as kooks for criticizing the government's handling of the economy." Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin called it "a sweeping indictment of conservatives."
As detailed by Spencer Ackerman in Wired, the political backlash prompted Homeland Security to shut down Johnson's team and curtail its "passive monitoring" of right-wing extremists—e.g., surveillance of publicly available information such as white supremacist web forums. Nowadays, Johnson says, the department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis has just one analyst who focuses on domestic terrorism by non-Muslims. (DHS did not respond to my request for comment.)
"There's one analyst there despite all the attacks, the criticism, and all the issues that were raised when I went public last year," says Johnson, who first spoke to the Washington Post about the shakeup last June. "Why hasn't Napolitano been responsible for reconstituting the domestic terrorism effort in her department?"
The remaining analyst, Johnson adds, has his writing scrutinized for "politically sensitive" content as the DHS seeks to preempt any further backlash.
While Johnson acknowledged to Wired that the characterization of the threat in his report was "imprecise," he still feels that DHS overreacted. "They caved in, and not only did they cave in, but they got rid of the entire unit for dealing with these kinds of issues."
In recent years, meanwhile, America has seen numerous instances of right-wing terrorism, from the lone gunman who attacked the Holocaust Museum to an attempt to plant an improvised explosive device at a Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Washington. An analysis by Peter Bergen of CNN counted eight terrorist attacks carried out by extremist right-wingers since 9/11, compared to four by al-Qaeda inspired or affiliated terrorists. The latter resulted in more deaths, however, largely because 13 people were killed in November 2009 when Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on his Army comrades at Texas' Ft. Hood.
Operative paragraph:
As detailed by Spencer Ackerman in Wired, the political backlash prompted Homeland Security to shut down Johnson's team and curtail its "passive monitoring" of right-wing extremists—e.g., surveillance of publicly available information such as white supremacist web forums. Nowadays, Johnson says, the department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis has just one analyst who focuses on domestic terrorism by non-Muslims. (DHS did not respond to my request for comment.)
ONE analyst?!?! Only one person focusing on non-Muslim terrorists?
Well, now we know why it's "impossible" to surveil a few thousand people who are members of U.S. hate groups-- because the DHS has only one person on the job!!
weak, very weak.
And thank you, DHS, for caving into the minority extremist right wing in our nation. that's totally the group you want to have driving important policy initiatives and decisions.
FBI Special agent Carlson: "As far as I know" ?? Vague, isn't it? I have to conclude either the FBI does know more and can't say due to the ongoing investigation, or admit this guy was not only not on their radar, but was not on the radar of the DHS or any of our other several security agencies.
Big problem there, since we already know the SPLC had been tracking Page for ten years.
I wonder-- what neo nazi type hate groups, groups like the Hammerskins, which Mr. Page was a member of, are active in France?
ZERO hate groups in France, because they are illegal.
and that, folks, is what needs to happen here in the U.S. These hate groups, neo nazi groups like the Hammerskins offer zero social-cultural value. They're ignorant bigots; there's nothing of intellectual value with these groups. They are negative, their world view is negative, and now one of their members killed innocent people in their place of meditation and prayer.
Ban them. all of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
http://www.motherjones.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dhs.gov/...