Napolitano: DHS memo based on past experience

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano apologized to veterans and other groups who read a DHS memo characterizing them as a possible domestic security risk, but said the memo’s contents drew on past experience.

Republicans have taken aim at the memo, which warns of risks from “right-wing extremists,” as being a politically motivated emination from the agency.

“They’re not accusations. They are assessments based on what’s happened in the past,” she said during an appearance on CBS. “The contents of that report are not anything that’s inconsistent with what we have seen in the past.”

“There are a number of things that are part of the environment that law enforcement deals with on just the situational nature,” Napolitano said Thursday morning during an appearance on Fox News. “That was something we were alerting people to.”

Napolitano said that she had been briefed on the memo before it was sent out to local law enforcement, and said she most regretted a footnote that characterized Americans focused on a single issue like abortion or immigration as a potential risk.

“If there’s one part of that report I would rewrite, in the word-smithing, Washington-ese that goes on after the fact, it would be that footnote,” she said.