Right-Wing Resurgence: How a Domestic Terrorist Threat is Being Ignored
Johnson, an expert on right-wing extremism and former civil servant, landed in hot water after a 2009 Department of Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism leaked to the public. Writing it was his responsibility as senior domestic terror analyst at the Department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, but his use of that term generated a tremendous amount of political backlash and backtracking. He painstakingly establishes a record of domestic terrorism incidents, arguing that tracking how perpetrators recruit is essential. His descriptions of homegrown terrorist organizations’ brutal murders and pursuit of biochemical weapons validates concerns about DHS’s reorganization to exclusively focus on domestic Muslim extremism.(Publishers Weekly)A sober assessment of the dangers posed by right-wing extremist violence in the United States in the 21stcentury.(Mark Pitcavage, Director of Investigative Research at the Anti-Defamation League)For years the lead analyst of non-Islamic domestic terrorism for the Department of Homeland Security, Daryl Johnson was the primary author of a report describing the threat of resurgent right-wing terrorism that was leaked in 2009. In his new book, Johnson offers a damning account of DHS leaders’ political cowardice when the report came under baseless criticism from the political right, culminating in its repudiation by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and the evisceration of Johnson’s team — actions that left America more vulnerable to terror from the right.(Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center)In the year after Obama’s 2008 victory, the number of militia groups tripled to 512—some suggest the number is higher. Many of these groups embrace a more radical and militant vision than in the past. Johnson, an expert on right-wing extremism, examines the dynamics of these groups and details how the threat they pose is being ignored.(Library Journal)