[Infowarrior] - MHP retracts controversial report on militia activity

[Richard Forno]

Missouri Highway Patrol retracts controversial report on militia  
activity
By JASON NOBLE
The Star’s Jefferson City correspondent

http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1109096.html

JEFFERSON CITY | The Missouri Highway Patrol this week retracted a  
controversial report on militia activity and will change how such  
reports are reviewed before being distributed to law enforcement  
agencies.

The Highway Patrol also will open an investigation into the origin of  
the report, which linked conservative groups with domestic terrorism  
and named former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck  
Baldwin.

The Highway Patrol’s announcement followed a news conference in which  
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican, suggested putting the director of  
public safety on administrative leave and investigating how the report  
was produced.

The uproar revolves around a report released last month by the  
Missouri Information Analysis Center, a “fusion center” for local,  
state and federal law enforcement agencies to collaborate on domestic  
security issues. The report concerned militia movements in Missouri  
and across the U.S., and described how they had evolved over the last  
several years.

But it suggested that domestic militias often subscribed to radical  
ideologies rooted in Christian views and opposition to immigration,  
abortion or federal taxes. The report also stated that it was “not  
uncommon” for militia members to support third-party political  
candidates.

The Highway Patrol’s superintendent, Col. James F. Keathley, released  
a memo saying the report did not meet the agency’s standard for  
quality and would not have been released if it had been seen by top  
officials.

“For that reason,” Keathley wrote, “I have ordered the MIAC to  
permanently cease distribution of the militia report.”

The memo noted the report was compiled by an employee of the  
information analysis center and reviewed only by the center director  
before being sent to law enforcement agencies across the state.

In the future, Keathley wrote, reports from the center will be  
reviewed by leaders of the Highway Patrol and the Department of Public  
Safety.

On Thursday, Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, expressed support for  
Keathley’s order and distanced his administration from the process  
that allowed the report to be released.

“Under a previous system, MIAC would prepare and distribute these  
reports to law enforcement agencies without review or approval from  
the colonel of the Highway Patrol or the director of Public Safety,”  
Nixon said. “That’s simply not acceptable.”

Conservatives in Missouri and nationally have criticized the report  
for lumping people with conservative political views in with domestic  
terrorists and potentially opening them to harassment from law  
enforcement.

Before Keathley’s memo was released Wednesday, Kinder criticized the  
report for suggesting that only issues championed by conservatives  
motivated domestic terrorists. The report “slanders” opponents of  
abortion and critics of illegal immigration, he said.

“Under the guidance of the present director, who apparently must think  
it is Nixon’s secret service, the Department of Public Safety has  
taken on the new and sinister role of political profiling,” Kinder said.

Also troubling Kinder said, the report makes no mention of Islamic  
terrorists or those who might subscribe to ideologies associated with  
liberals, such as environmental radicals.

The state’s response to the conservative outcry over the report  
evolved over the last few weeks. In one early response, the  
information analysis center released a statement reaffirming its  
“regard for the Constitutions of the United States and Missouri” and  
expressing regret that “any citizens or groups were unintentionally  
offended by the content of the document.”

Then earlier this week, Department of Public Safety Director John M.  
Britt retracted the portions that noted third party and Republican  
presidential candidates by name and sent letters of apology to the  
politicians.

But even with the retraction and the investigation announced  
Wednesday, Britt should be suspended and the General Assembly should  
investigate how the report was prepared, Kinder said.

“Director Britt has still not answered any of the questions about what  
other reports may have been developed and the procedure behind these  
memos,” Kinder’s spokesman, Gary McElyea, said in a statement. “Until  
those questions are answered Mr. Britt should be placed on immediate  
leave.”

Britt had no comment.

To reach Jason Noble, call 573-634-3565 or send e-mail to jnoble at kcstar.com 
.