Judicial Watch obtained Defense Department training materials on Friday that described conservative and civil liberties organizations as "hate groups."
The training materials used by the Air Force were created to help students "recognize extremists ideologies." The materials identified conservative values, such as individual liberties and states' rights, as recruiting rhetoric used by "extremists."
According to Judicial Watch:
Under a section labeled "Extremist Ideologies" the document states, "In U.S. history, there are many examples of extremist ideologies and movements. The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule and the Confederate states who sought to secede from the Northern states are just two examples."
The documents were published by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute in January 2013. They cited the leftwing Southern Poverty Law Center repeatedly as a source to use when identifying hate groups.
The documents discussed Islamic extremism only in reference to Sudan and 9/11.
Major Nidal Hasan, a former U.S. Army psychologist known to have extremist Islamic views, was found guilty on Friday for shooting 30 and killing 13 service members at Fort Hood in 2009. Hasan was also connected to the al Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki, whom he emailed prior to the attack. His case was not cited in any of the materials provided to Judicial Watch.