---

American Muslims welcome Senate inquiry into accuracy and effectiveness of counterterrorism training
The American Muslim
March 30, 2011

Earlier this year, Political Research Associates released the report titled, Manufacturing the Muslim Menace: Private Firms, Public Servants, and the Threat to Rights and Security. A petition to Congress and relevant federal and local agencies to ensure that counterterrorism skills training delivered to public servants is accurate, consistent with national security policy, and respectful of constitutional rights.

---

Federal Funds for Counterterrorism Training Pay for Anti-Muslim Instructors
Talking Points Memo
March 15, 2011

There's been an explosion of both state and federal money flowing into counterterrorism training for law enforcement in the years since Sept. 11. But it is becoming increasingly clear that some of the experts who are providing counterterrorism training for local law enforcement officers are sometimes not well vetted and have provided training which is based on bias against all Muslims and relies on falsehoods and exaggerations.

---

Zuhdi Jasser and AIFD—Identified by Rep. King as the Ideal American Muslim Leadership
The American Muslim
March 12, 2011

During the first of Peter King’s planned hearings “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response”, Zuhdi Jasser was the star witness.  Why was he put in this position as the face of American Muslims? 

---

Islam, Religious Violence, ‘Brainwashing,’ and Countersubversion
by PRA senior analyst Chip Berlet on Talk To Action
March 11, 2011

The hearing on Islamic radicalization staged by Rep. Peter King is an appalling example of the media being sucker-punched. Where in the recent news coverage were interviews with social scientists who actually study how religious ideology can intersect with violence and terrorism?

---

Muslim Baiting: Peter King's Dangerous Obsession
Politics Daily
March 10, 2011

In the last month and half, the Muslim world has been re-imagined in Western minds. On our television screens, at least before the upheaval in Libya, we saw women on the streets of Cairo, peaceful demonstrations, dictators overthrown.

---

Think tank says millions of tax payer dollars are spent spreading anti-Muslim myths
Free Speech Radio News
March 9, 2011

On the eve of controversial congressional hearings on “Radicalization in the American Muslim Community,” an increasing number of advocacy groups are warning about the rise in Islamophobia and discrimination against US Muslims. And some of the people espousing these sentiments could be supported by taxpayer dollars. According to a nine-month-long investigation by the progressive think tank Political Research Associates, millions of dollars in counterterrorism funding is being spent disseminating anti-Islamic myths.

---

CAIR slams King for being 'anti-Muslim'
PressTV
March 9, 2011

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has lashed out at GOP Rep. Peter King's comments in which he said his congressional hearing is not against "Islam as a religion."

---

New Concern About Bias In Counterterror Training
NPR's Morning Edition
March 9, 2011

Army Lt. Col. Reid Sawyer, a career intelligence officer, runs the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. This week, at a New York Fire Department training center, Sawyer stood before a classroom of 40 fire marshals, chiefs and firefighters who are taking an 11-week course in terrorism.

---

U.S. counter-terrorism training 'presents Islam as inherently violent'
The Guardian
March 9, 2011

The US government is being accused of pumping millions of dollars into unregulated training schemes for local police officers and other law enforcers that give a distorted, dangerous and inflammatory picture of the Muslim faith.

---

The anti-Muslim fearmongering we can't see
Op-ed by PRA executive director Tarso Ramos in The Guardian
March 9, 2011

A generation ago, irresponsible pundits inflamed anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment, claiming that the election of then Senator John F Kennedy to the presidency would put the White House under the control of Rome. Today, where Muslims are concerned, it seems there's no claim too absurd, no charge too baseless to command the full attention of certain public officials and even the investigatory powers of Congress.

---

Meet Alex Jones, the Talk Radio Host Behind Charlie Sheen's Crazy Rants
Rolling Stone Magazine
March 2, 2011

Alex Jones can draw a million viewers within days for a documentary like his The Obama Deception. "In the past, such theories were circulated in booklets, books, public speeches and sermons," says Chip Berlet, who studies conspiracy culture for Political Research Associates, a Boston-based think tank. "Jones reaches more people over the Internet than any conspiracy crank in U.S. history."

---

A Look Inside Loughner’s Mind Reveals Our Own
National Public Radio
January 23, 2011

PRA senior analyst Chip Berlet speaks to NPR's Wade Goodwyn about the conspiracy elements within Loughner's writings. Listen here.

---

In Hate’s Wake
National Journal
January 13, 2011

The Tucson massacre has sparked a discussion of whether overheated political rhetoric contributes to political violence. Though the Tucson shootings may be frightening, PRA’s Chip Berlet points out, it follows a familiar story in American history. Read more here.

---

Sarah Palin, the “Blood Libel,” and Jewish Democrats in the Crosshairs
Talk 2 Action
January 12, 2011

It is not surprising that someone who thinks she can see Russia while hunting on the shores of Alaska would claim she is the target of the "Blood Libel" for being held morally accountable for her malicious rhetoric. The "Blood Libel" is the term used to describe the centuries old malicious and false claim that Jews kidnap Gentile children to drain their blood and use it to make Matzos used in religious rituals. It is a sick irony that Rep. Garbrielle Giffords, the target of the Tucson terror rampage, is Jewish. Read more here.

---

Experts See Echoes of Extremism is Loughner’s Ramblings
Los Angeles Times
January 12, 2011

The ramblings of accused Arizona killer Jared Lee Loughner are difficult to tie to a coherent political philosophy, yet in them can be discerned a number of themes drawn from the right-wing patriot and militia movements, experts said. "The people who talk about the manipulation of currency follow it backward from the IRS to the Federal Reserve … that it's run by either secret, powerful elites or secret, powerful Jewish elites," said Chip Berlet, senior analyst at Political Research Associates. Read more here.

---

Political Violence, Mental Illness, and Demonizing Rhetoric
Talk 2 Action
January 11, 2011

Senior analyst Chip Berlet explains his writings on the alleged shooter who appears to have made a conscious attempt to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Berlet has been explaining those patches of coherent text by Mr. Loughner that reflect longstanding claims found in right-wing conspiracy texts. It is speculation about a possible world view. It is speculation, but it is rooted in substantial research into the dynamics at work. Read more here.

---

Examining Loughner’s rants is an exercise in madness
Philadelphia Daily News
January 11, 2011

Several experts say the writings depict Jared Lee Loughner, who lived with his parents, as a disturbed young man who was influenced by several obscure Internet conspiracy theories, several of which skew to the political far-right fringe. "The ideas we see in his writings reflect the narratives of a right-wing milieu — that of the militias or the Posse Comitatus movement," said Chip Berlet, who tracks ultraconservative political movements at Political Research Associates. Read more here.

---

Chip Berlet on "The Becking of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords"
Democracy Now!
January 10, 2011

Host Amy Goodman speaks with Chip Berlet, co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. In his latest article about the Arizona shooting, Berlet writes: "From a moral viewpoint Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is the victim of demagogues such as Glenn Beck and his allies at Fox News and in the Tea Party Movement. This is not about legal liability, but about moral culpability. This is about a nation that has lost its moral compass." Listen and watch here.

---

Is Jared Lee Loughner Tied to Hate Groups?
Colorlines
January 10, 2011

Details are still emerging about Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old suspect in Saturday’s shooting rampage in Arizona that killed six and seriously wounded 14 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  But what role did hate groups play in last week’s tragedy? In his YouTube videos in which he ranted about mind control, a “second Constitution”, and his hometown’s literacy rates. Chip Berlet writes that the concept of a second Constitution has been popularly misconstrued by conspiracy theorists and white nationalist groups…Read more here.

---

Jared Lee Loughner and the Far Right
Progressive
January 9, 2011

His web postings reflect “a jumble” of far right views. And some anti-Semitic white nationalists shed no tears over Gabrielle Giffords.  As Chip Berlet, for decades one of the most perceptive analysts of the far right in America, notes: “The writings of Jared Lee Loughner are an odd jumble of right-wing Patriot and anti-Federal Reserve themes mixed with rhetoric similar to that from people who are mentally unbalanced.” Read more here.

---

Who is Jared Lee Loughner?
Huffington Post
January 9, 2011

Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok writes, “Is Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged mass murderer who shot U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, a right-wing extremist? Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates points out that Loughner also makes a reference to a ‘second American constitution.’” Read more here.

---

Possible Racist and Anti-Immigrant Tie to Alleged Arizona Assassin
Talk2Action
January 9, 2011

Alleged assassin Jared Lee Loughner on December 15, 2010 posted a message about "the second United States constitution" and his distrust of the current government. In another message apparently authored by Loughner on a conspiracy theory website, were these words: "Is it possible that politicians are taking advantage of the money system? It's possible to overthrow a government and change the currency." Read more here.

---

Alleged Giffords Shooter Shares Currency Plot Obsession with Anti-Abortion Killer
Talk2Action
January 8, 2011

Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged shooter of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others in Arizona shares an obsession with government currency and money manipulation plots with anti-abortion killer John C. Salvi 3d. Loughner wrote about a conspiracy of currency manipulation in text posted on YouTube. Salvi was found guilty in the Brookline, Massachusetts clinic shootings in late 1994 that left two women dead and several persons injured. Read more here.

---

Shift In Mission For Religious Firebrand
Boston Globe
January 5, 2011

He gained international attention after he was accused of stoking violence against gays in Uganda. One of his books, “Pink Swastika,’’ argues that Hitler and other Nazi leaders were gay. Another provides seven steps to “recruit-proof’’ your child from gay activists. But Scott Lively says he is toning down his antigay rhetoric and shifting his focus to helping the downtrodden…“Honestly, I wouldn’t believe a thing from Scott Lively. I don’t even think he’s capable of toning down his antigay rhetoric,’’ said Kapya Kaoma of Political Research Associates. Read more here.

---

The Tea Party Republicans’ Malek Problem
Huffington Post
November 3, 2010

Chip Berlet writes: Fred V. Malek, is a key political strategist for the American Action Network which just spent some $7 million to unseat Congressional Democrats with votes from the Tea Partiers. Malek is in the midst of a renewed controversy stemming from an incident in 1988. Malek resigned his post at the Republican National Committee in September of that year after it was revealed that in 1971 he had compiled a political hit list of Jewish employees at a federal agency that his boss, President Richard M. Nixon, felt were not team players.  Read more here.

---

Republicanos, los más beneficiados por la "generosidad" de los empresarios de EU
Republicans, the biggest beneficiaries from the "generosity" of U.S. business
La Jornada
November 1, 2010

Chip Berlet, analista de Political Research Associates y reconocido experto sobre movimientos de derecha, comentó que "el movimiento Tea Party es la más reciente extensión de una campaña lanzada por la derecha política en los años 30, que buscaba revertir las políticas sociales del gobierno de Roosevelt. Leer más del artículo de La Jornada aquí. 

Chip Berlet, an analyst at Political Research Associates and a recognized expert on right-wing movements, said that "the Tea Party movement is the latest extension of a campaign launched by the political Right in the 30s, which sought to reverse the government's social policies under Roosevelt.Read more of La Jornada’s article here.

---

La campaña por las legislativas del martes copada por la ultraderecha
The campaign for Tuesday’s legislative vote taken over by the far Right
Clarin
October 31, 2010

“No es la primera vez que en la política estadounidense aparece una ola extremista, radical”, dijo a Clarín Chip Berlet, un analista de Politica Research Associates. “Lo que es inusual es que esta vez han logrado copar el Partido Republicano”, explicó.

"It's not the first time in American politics appears a wave extremist, radical," Chip Berlet, an analyst at Political Research Associates, told Clarin. "What is unusual is that this time they managed to corner the Republican Party," he said.

---

Tea Party Loyalists Biased Against Blacks, Latinos, Immigrants
Alternet
October 26, 2010 

Senior analyst Chip Berlet writes: Many loyalist supporters of the Tea Party Movement harbor troubling biases against Blacks, Latinos, immigrants, & gay people.  That was the main take-away message in several papers presented at a national symposium last week in California. The symposium on “Fractures, Alliances and Mobilizations in the Age of Obama: Emerging Analyses of the ‘Tea Party Movement’” was sponsored by the Center for the Comparative Study of Right-wing Movements at the University of California at Berkeley. Read more here.

For more PRA in the News, go to our archive page.