October 22nd, 2009, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned the Missouri Department of Public Safety for “talking out of both sides of its mouth” on the controversial “Modern Militia Movement” domestic threat advisory issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) in February.
Documents obtained by the Liberty Restoration Project (LRP) through its own Sunshine Law requests in March reveal that MIAC may have deliberately deceived ALG in its response to the group’s request for information on “all personnel involved in drafting the Report” was not fulfilled.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s response to ALG’s Sunshine Law Request, “[b]ackground material was not retained by the author during drafting.” And, in addition, “[t]here is no record listing the individual who wrote the report.”
In fact, the only record the state of Missouri claims it has of the report was its single draft version. And that, it told ALG, was written by an unknown source.
However, one email revealed in LRP’s Sunshine request clearly shows a criminal intelligence analyst, named Brandon Middleton, at MIAC sending a draft of the report to the Assistant Director of MIAC at the time, Greg Hug.
“Did the Missouri Department of Public Safety engage in planned deception on the MIAC militia report?” Wilson asked.
“Clearly, there is mounting evidence that the Missouri Information Analysis Center has attempted to stonewall the American people about its erroneous ‘threat’ alert,” said Wilson, adding “There needs to be a full accounting of how and who put this report together.”
On October 20th, in a letter to Department of Public Safety chief John Britt, ALG counsel Nathan Mehrens stated, “The response we received would lead a reasonable person to conclude that background materials did at one point exist but that they were destroyed.”
In the “Militia Movement” advisory, police across Missouri were told to keep an eye out for Americans who were highly concerned about unemployment, taxes, illegal immigration, gangs, border security, abortion, high costs of living, gun restrictions, FEMA, the IRS, and the Federal Reserve.
The MIAC advisory also stated that potential domestic terrorists would be attracted to gun shows, shortwave radios, action movies, movies with white male heroes like Rambo, Tom Clancy novels, and presidential candidates Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and Chuck Baldwin.
According to the executive director of the Liberty Restoration Project, Catherine Bleish, “They do know who wrote it, they’re just not telling you. And they said at the first hearing that they weren’t going to say who it was to protect his identity,” referring to an ongoing inquiry by the Missouri House Interim Committee on State Intelligence Analysis Oversight into the MIAC memo, which Bleish testified in front of.
“We are looking forward to the findings of the House Intelligence Committee on the MIAC ‘threat’ advisory. But the people of Missouri—and across the country—shouldn’t have to wait for a long-drawn hearing to get the basic facts. Somebody misled the public. And we want the truth—now,” said Wilson.
“The people of Missouri and all Americans deserve to know why a federal-state intelligence center that is supposed to issuing actionable intelligence to law enforcement has not kept its sources intact, refuses to disclose who authored this report, and has sent contradictory responses to Sunshine Law requests,” Wilson added. “If records were destroyed, there must be accountability.”
According to MIAC’s website, “Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) provides a public safety partnership consisting of local, state and federal agencies, as well as the public sector and private entities that will collect, evaluate, analyze, and disseminate information and intelligence to the agencies tasked with Homeland Security responsibilities in a timely, effective, and secure manner.”
“Law enforcement must not be profiling individuals based upon political ideology alone. There needs to be a credible threat, but MIAC’s alert was so broad as to encompass potentially a majority of the population,” said Wilson.
“And unless it is revealed who, how, and why this report was developed, its sources not retained, and what coordination there was if any with outside groups to develop its original findings, these incidences of political profiling by federal and state intelligence centers like DHS and MIAC will continue,” Wilson concluded.
Enclosed Materials:
“The Modern Militia Movement,” Missouri Information Analysis Center, February 20th, 2009.
Missouri Sunshine Law Request to the Missouri Highway Patrol, August 21st, 2009.
Missouri Highway Patrol Response to Sunshine Law Request, October 1st, 2009.
ALG Response to Missouri Department of Public Safety, October 20th, 2009.
Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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