Report citing veteran extremism is pulled

“It did not contain any evidence,” Mr. Rehbein said. “It was an unfair and unsubstantiated stereotype based on Timothy McVeigh.”

The report also said “rightwing extremism” may include groups opposed to abortion and immigration, among several other threat assessments.

In March, the department issued and recalled within hours, a lexicon of key terms and phrases used by Homeland Security analysts “that addresses the nature and scope of the threat that domestic, non-Islamic extremism poses to the United States.”

Whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, Cubans and Mexicans, along with tax objectors, were among several political leanings listed in the “Domestic Extremism Lexicon.” Both reports were prepared by the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

“Some things in my initial days have gone very well at the department, some things have not. And that was probably the worst thing,” Ms. Napolitano told the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security on Tuesday.

“It was not authorized to be distributed. It had not even completed its vetting process within the department. It has been taken off of the intel Web sites and the lexicon that went along with it was similarly withdrawn,” she said.

“Neither were authorized products, and we have now put in place processes. And it turned out there were really no procedures to govern what went out and what didn’t before, and now there are. I do not want to see a replication of that,” Ms. Napolitano said.