US Rep. Buchanan Letter Looped into Logan Marine Arrest

The same day that a Marine was arrested at Boston's Logan airport for transporting the tools of terrorism, US Rep. Vern Buchanan (FL 13) expressed “strong objection” to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warning that returning war veterans are susceptible to recruitment by extremist and terrorist organizations.

Marine Corporal Justin Reed was arrested at Logan after ammunition, fuses, and detonators and a firearm were found in the baggage he successfully checked onto a commercial domestic flight.  In today’s letter from Buchanan to President Obama, Buchanan objected to the content of the leaked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) risk assessment memo that warned “The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today."

Buchanan’s letter identifies the DHS statement, “Rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat” as particularly offensive.  He also states that the DHS memo offers “no evidence to support this ridiculous and offensive allegation” and described the warning as “offensive…toward returning war veterans.”

In a same-day distribution of the letter to his constituents (including a reported 95000 veterans), Buchanan explained that the letter was sent “to the White House requesting that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) retract the baseless and offensive allegation that returning veterans can be easily lured into becoming domestic terrorists.”

The leaked DHS risk assessment memo was sent to law enforcement personnel on April 15th.  The “Official Use Only” memo, was published on Web sites and linked by several mainstream news outlets.