TSA Nominee Warns of Right-Wing Terrorists
The Transportation Security Administration has been without a chief since Barack Obama’s inauguration, but it took the undi-bomber’s attempted Christmas Day massacre to bring this to the attention of Senate Democrats.
Acting Administrator Gale Rossides has been holding down the fort since Kip Hawley left with the Bush administration in January 2009, but Barack Obama waited until September to nominate Erroll Southers for the post. Democrats recessed for the year without taking action on the nomination, yet they proceeded to blame Republicans when the attempted bombing occurred without Southers in command.
Southers is quite a guy. For example, The Washington Post reported that Southers, a former FBI agent, improperly used law enforcement databases 20 years ago to access information about his then-estranged wife’s new boyfriend. Such a man hardly deserves to be in charge of the TSA, which has the authority to check passengers’ backgrounds.
This week, more evidence emerged that he is unfit for the job: He thinks right-wing groups are the real terrorists.
The new video of a 2008 interview shows Southers responding to a question about what terrorist groups posed the greatest danger to the U.S. Southers explained, “Most of the domestic groups that we pay attention to here are white supremacist groups. They’re anti-government, in most cases anti-abortion, they are usually survivalist type in nature, identity oriented.” Furthermore, he said, “Those groups are groups that claim to be extremely anti-government and Christian identity oriented.”
Such views are nothing new for the Obama administration, so Southers should fit right in. The Department of Homeland Security released a report last year entitled, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”
Since its inception, TSA has been a symbol of political correctness gone awry, as agents pull grandma aside while refusing to profile for Muslim terrorists. With Erroll Southers in charge, this can only become more pronounced.
