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a with whom it disagrees. Instead, all opponents are undeserving of decency. This isa mark of true lanaticism.

Itis exactly this sort of rhetoric and animus that can lead to violence. The SF’LChas used its website to recklessly inflame public sentiment against those with whom it disagrees by labeling them “extremists” and “haters.” Regarding this point the FI{Chas direct experience.

On August 15, 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins 11,entered our lobby armed with a loaded semi automatic pistol and 100 rounds of ammunition. intending to slaughter as many FRC staff as he could because we oppose same-sex marriage. Fortunately, it never came to that because our building manager, Mr. Leo Johnson. heroically stopped Corkins though he was shot and grievously wounded with a bone-shattering injury to his left arm.

On February 6,2013, Corkins pleaded guilty to three charges in federal court, including committing an act of domestic terrorism while armed. Corkins is the only person to ever have been convicted under the D.C. terrorism statute enacted in 2002, in the wake of 9-1i. In a chilling interrogation video released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and played in court, Corkins said he picked his targets by relying on the SPLC website’s I-late4Map. He also repeated these facts in open court when he pleaded guilty. It is part of the indisputable public record. Yet, Mr. Cohen made this statement in his letter to your committee: ‘The contention that our hate map played a role in radicalizing Floyd Corkins, who shot and wounded a security guard at the FRC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., is patently absurd.” Mr. Cohen seems to think of his organization’s Flate Map as something akin to a Google webpage or a Garmin Nuvi — a sterile Internet or GPS device with nounderlying ideology or purpose.

Around the time of the FRC incident, the FBI indicated that the FRC was not the only organization to have been targeted by Corkins. A similar conservative group, the Public Advocate, may have been next on his hit list. Corkins was seen near the Public Advocate’s office in FaIls Chureh.

Just a few short weeks ago on June 9 of this year, the SPLC released yet another list: this one, enumerating high-profile conservative women who are “at the core of the anti-Muslim radical right.”’ Complete with hirthdates, pictures, hometowns, and organizational affiliations, this group of a dozen women consists of highly credentialed policy experts whom the SPLC bluntly

In fact, this horrific terrorist act is now part of an exhibit at the NatiDnal Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C.,entitled ‘Domestic Terrori5m and Hate Crimes. For more on the exhibit, see this March 20, 2015 story by Penny Starr of CNSNew5.com(http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/domestic-terror attack-k mily-resea rch-cou nciI-new-exhibit-national-crime).

One can 5ee Corkins attack Leo Johnson in this video, and the relevant part of his interrogation in which he names the SPL.Cwebsite as the source of his information (link; https;//www.youtube.com/watch?vnl9BQISv8Fg). Jonathan Hunley, teesburg Today, “Delgaudio Outraged Over Herring Fundraising Email,’ http://www.leesburgtoday.com/news/delga udlo-outraged-over-he rnng-fundraising-email/a rticle_e5 1f2e4c-3244- 11e5-8955-Sf3BbfdS3O3d.html, accessed 7/28/15.

Mark Potok and Janet Smith, SPLCHatewatch, ‘Women Against 151am”https://medium.com/hatewatch blog/women-against-islam-a9f42563e1c2, accessed 7/28/15. categorizes — as it is vont to do — as radicai islamophobes” Why? Because they have expressed concern with the incremental creep ol Sharia law and domestic terrorism in the United States. \‘our committee is vell anare olthe spitcein incidents of homegrown terror committed by those who associate with radical [slarn.A list of this sort puts all twelve women squarely in the crosshairs.

As Laird Wilcox notes. the SPLCThname-calling is absolutely intentional. It is “a way of harming and isolating people by denying their humanity and trying to convert them into something that deserves to be hate and eliminated” Their methodology is simple, effecti’e. and :j ciOils.

With these points in mind, I felt that th SF’LCcould not be allowed to make such comments about the FRC. and about other fhithful Christians indirectly, without a response.

Mr. Chairman and Representative Thompson. I thank you for this opportunity to do so.

Respectfully yours.

LTG (R) US Army Executive Vice President Family Research Council