Bennie Thompson

The following article relates Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s response to criticism of her departments recent intelligence assessment on Rightwing Extremism:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-ap-napolitano-right-wing-extremists,0,2028786.story

This paragraph contains a response from Representative Bennie Thompson, Chairman of the US House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security:

The senior Democrat of the House committee with oversight of the department said the most recent report raises privacy and civil liberty issues. "This report appears to have blurred the line between violent belief, which is constitutionally protected, and violent action, which is not," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wrote in a letter to Napolitano.

The following link is to the press center for the US House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security. The referenced press release is dated 4/19/05:

http://homeland.house.gov/press/index.aspID=119&SubSection=0&Issue=0&DocumentType=0&PublishDate=0
The following paragraph from the above press release is of interest:

Congressman Thompson stated, “As the Department of Homeland Security implements a plan to focus on risk as a means of allocating scarce anti-terrorism resources, it must consider the threat that right-wing domestic terrorists pose to critical infrastructure and America.”

It appears that Bennie Thompson is now criticizing the Department of Homeland Security for implementing a policy that he initiated.