GOP lawmaker wants answers on FBI's alleged Southern Poverty Law Center ties http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...alleged-southern-poverty-law-center-ties.html A Republican lawmaker is demanding some answers from the FBI after he says the bureau admitted to working with the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center. In a letter obtained by Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., says the FBI has “admitted to working with the SPLC,” in a development he describes as “surprising and worrisome.” “This is surprising and worrisome, as the SPLC is known to use its platform in order to denigrate and disparage certain groups by labeling them ‘hate groups,’” he said. He said that groups such as the Christian Family Research Council (FRC) have been labeled a hate group, while members of “Antifa” -- a broad collaboration of left-leaning, anti-fascist activists -- have not been given such a label. He added that Floyd Corkins, who shot an FRC employee, later said he targeted the group as the SPLC had labeled it an antigay group. “The SPLC’s conflation of mainstream political advocacy groups with legitimate hate groups and domestic terror groups is absurd, frequently indiscriminate and dangerous,” he said. While details on the alleged relationship were not clear, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” reported that the FBI had described the group as “a well-known, established and credible” organization in 2009, and that the agency has briefed the FBI on alleged domestic terror threats in the U.S. Gaetz’s letter requests more information on the FBI’s alleged ties to the group, including how much weight the FBI gives to SPLC designations of “hate groups” and what information, if any, the bureau provides to the group. The FBI confirmed to “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in June that it “continues to have a relationship with the SPLC.” This week, when pressed on that relationship, the FBI had this to say: “For many years, the FBI has engaged with various organizations, both formally and informally. Such outreach is a critical component of the FBI’s mission, and we welcome information from these organizations on any possible violations of civil rights, hate crimes or other potential crimes or threats. We do, however, evaluate our relationships with these groups as necessary to ensure the appropriateness of any interaction.” A Department of Justice spokesman said that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had ordered that any such relationships be re-evaluated. "The attorney general has directed the FBI to re-evaluate their relationships with groups like this to ensure the FBI does not partner with any group that discriminates," a spokesperson said in a statement. The center recently apologized and issued a $3.3 million settlement to Maajid Nawaz and his organization, the Quilliam Foundation, for including them in a list of “anti-Muslim extremists.” “Although we may have our differences with some of the positions that Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have taken, we recognize that they have made important contributions to efforts to promote pluralism and that they are most certainly not anti-Muslim extremists,” the group said in a statement.
Alternative Title: Thoughts from the Bubble, BS Edition I wonder why “Family Research Council believes that homosexual conduct is harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large, and can never be affirmed. It is by definition unnatural, and as such is associated with negative physical and psychological health effects.” — Family Research Council website, 2016. “The reality is, homosexuals have entered the Scouts in the past for predatory purposes.” — FRC Vice President Rob Schwarzwalder, on radio’s “The Janet Mefferd Show,” February 1, 2013. One of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the 'prophets' of a new sexual order." — 1999 FRC publication, "Homosexual Behavior and Pedophilia," Robert Knight and Frank York. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/family-research-council As for antifa boogeyman Why doesn't the SPLC list antifa as a hate group? The SPLC condemns violence in all its forms, including the violent acts of far-left street movements like antifa (short for anti-fascist). But the propensity for violence, though present in many hate groups, is not among the criteria for listing. Also, antifa groups do not promote hatred based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity (see criteria above). What is a hate group? The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a hate group as an organization that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. The organizations on our hate group list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity – prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines. The FBI uses similar criteria in its definition of a hate crime: [A] criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity. We define a “group” as an entity that has a process through which followers identify themselves as being part of the group. This may involve donating, paying membership dues or participating in activities such as meetings and rallies. Individual chapters of a larger organization are each counted separately, because the number indicates reach and organizing activity.
One only has to look at the lengthy list of people and organizations that the SPLC had to pay money to recently for declaring them "hate groups" -- to get an immediate understanding of why any law enforcement organization having a relationship with the SPLC is a significant issue. The SPLC itself has evolved into a hate group. Which is a tragedy since originally it did some good work before it completely drove off the tracks.
So? Fox News has settled with many people too, organizations get things wrong - does that mean they are illegitimate? The only reason you are hating on SPLC is because most of these hate groups are on your side.
Does the FBI partner with FOX News? There is a significant issue when a law enforcement partners with an organization such as the SPLC which uses a political agenda to declare people & organizations as hate groups with little to no evidence to back their assertions.
SPLC's reason for existing is to track 'hate groups' and since it's FBI's job to track crimes related to hate, it's no surprise that they 'partnered' on a case by case basis. If FOX news actually did any journalism or first hand crime investigations, FBI would partner with them too except most of Fox News is about peddling baseless conspiracy theories like Seth Rich and Uranium One to keep their dumb reactionary base triggered.
brb kkk drags black kid to his death brb no evidence I for one am glad organizations track perps and assist underfunded law enforcement with intel.
It could be said that the SPLC is itself a hate group. The idea that the Trump FBI partners with it is astounding. They should be investigating it. Another example of how deeply corrupt and politicized the FBI became under Obama. The only answer is a top to bottom housecleaning to get rid of not only compromised senior leadership but all the Peter Strzok's and Lisa Page's buried in its massive bureaucracy.