Despite the claim in the memo leaked from DHS and published by Fox News, no sign of any connection with AmRen American Renaissance the anti-immigrant group.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plu...d_possibl.html
Quote:
For the last 24 hours, the Web has been alive with speculation that the Arizona shooter has some sort of ties to a right-wing group called American Renaissance. The primary source for this claim is a Fox News report from yesterday saying that law enforcement had made this determination based on information provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
But a DHS official tells me that the department has not established any such possibility, undercutting what appears to be the primary basis for this claim.
Fox News's report yesterday initially claimed that a DHS memo had outlined the possible connection, and defined American Renaissance as a "pro-white racist organization" that Jared Loughner "mentioned in some of his internet postings." Fox later walked back the report a bit, sourcing the claim to "a law enforcement memo based on information provided by DHS."
The Fox report caused a splash, with some news orgs reporting that anonymous officials had confirmed such possible ties. Some conservatives railed at DHS for supposedly trying to tie the shooter to the right for political reasons, and others disputed the suggestion that this displayed the shooter's ideological leanings.
But DHS has not officially provided any such information to any law enforcement officials, the DHS official says.
"We have not established any such possible link," the official says.
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