Hate Groups Claim FBI Has Severed Ties With “Domestic Terrorism-Inspiring” SPLC

Multiple right wing sites are celebrating the FBI’s apparent decision to remove links to the Southern Poverty Law Center from their website. Several anti-gay hate groups are claiming credit for the move after having formed a coalition to pressure the FBI to make the move. Also apparently removed from the FBI’s website was the Anti-Defamation League. Via the Washington Examiner:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which has labeled several Washington, D.C.-based family organizations as “hate groups” for favoring traditional marriage, has been dumped as a “resource” on the FBI’s Hate Crime Web page, a significant rejection of the influential legal group. The Web page scrubbing, which also included eliminating the Anti-Defamation League, was not announced and came in the last month after 15 family groups pressed Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director James Comey to stop endorsing a group — SPLC — that inspired a recent case of domestic terrorism at the Family Research Council.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told Secrets, “We are shocked, surprised and disappointed that this would be done without any consultation with groups such as ours who have been working closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on issues of hate crime. We look forward to having further conversations with them on this issue.” The FBI had no comment and offered no explanation for its decision to end their website’s relationship with the two groups, leaving just four federal links as hate crime “resources.” The SPLC had no comment.

Note that the very first sentence from the Examiner is an outright lie as the SPLC does not consider opposition to same-sex marriage as a criteria for naming hate groups. If it did, there would be hundreds of organizations on their list, not dozens.

UPDATE: Jeremy Hooper refutes the claim at Good As You.

The FBI’s hate crimes division still very much lists both orgs (plus NAACP, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, the National Organization for Women, the Human Rights Campaign, and the National Disability Rights Network) as partners in the fight against hate crimes. Both organizations are listed smack dab on the overview page, under “public outreach.” There is absolutely no reason to assume anything untoward or see this as any sort of repudiation of anyone.