Administration

Homeland Security investigating hand-drawn swastika found in DC building

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A hand-drawn swastika was reportedly found on Friday in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) building in Washington.

An email sent at about 5 p.m. to staffers in the building by Principal Deputy Undersecretary for the Office of Intelligence and Analysis Brian Murphy said the Nazi symbol was found on the third floor, according to CNN.

“First, I want to repeat what (Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis David Glawe), the Secretary, and many others in the Department have said in the past: there is no room in the workplace for such symbols of hate,” Murphy wrote in the email. “And there is no room in the workplace for those who ascribe to such a thing. I have communicated with USIA Glawe, who is currently in Israel, and he is disgusted by what has happened.”

Murphy added that the department is removing the swastika and asking staffers and cleaning employees if anyone saw any “suspicious” activity, CNN noted.{mosads}

The agency will also reportedly notify the DHS’s offices of the inspector general and security, and it will call on its Insider Threat Program to “take steps as appropriate” and hear feedback from the agency’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on “steps we may want to take” going forward.

DHS has no “tolerance in our workplace for such acts of hate,” Murphy wrote, “and this email is just the next step in our communication and action plan,” CNN reports.

One employee accidentally hit “reply all” in answering Murphy in an email, writing: “Check out the latest [Intelligence and Analysis] insanity — as if leadership really cares. I guess I should not be surprised.”

In answering the employee, Murphy also hit “reply all,” according to CNN: “I do care.”

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

Tags anti-Semitic Department of Homeland Security District of Columbia Investigation Swastika

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