The Alabama
Department of Homeland Security has taken down a Web site it
operated that included gay rights and antiwar organizations
in a list of groups that could include terrorists. The
Web site identified different types of terrorists and
included a list of groups it believed could spawn
terrorists. The list also included environmentalists, animal
rights advocates, and abortion opponents.
The director of
the department, Jim Walker, said his agency received a
number of calls and e-mails from people who said they felt
the site unfairly targeted certain people just because
of their beliefs. He said he plans to put the Web site
back on the Internet but will no longer identify
specific types of groups.
Howard Bayliss,
chairman of the gay and lesbian advocacy group Equality
Alabama, said he doesn't understand why gay rights advocates
would be on the list.
''Our group has
only had peaceful demonstrations. I'm deeply concerned
we've been profiled in this discriminatory matter,'' Bayliss
said.
The site included
the groups under a description of what it called
''single-issue'' terrorists. That group includes people who
feel they are trying to create a better world, the Web
site said. It said that in some communities law
enforcement officers consider certain single-issue groups
to be a threat.
''Single-issue
extremists often focus on issues that are important to all
of us. However, they have no problem crossing the line
between legal protest and...illegal acts, to include
even murder, to succeed in their goals,'' it read.
Walker said the
site had been up since spring 2004 and had gotten a
relatively small number of hits until it recently became the
subject of blogs, he said.
Birmingham
attorney Eric Johnston, president of the Alabama Pro Life
Coalition, said he was concerned about any list that
described people doing social justice work as
terrorists. ''Our group's main mission is educational.
The thought that we would somehow be harboring terrorists
escapes me,'' he said. (AP)