State apologizes for infamous MIAC report remarks on third parties

If you missed out on the discussion of the issue, you can get more information from last week's blog post, or out on the Internet.

On Monday the Southeast Missourian received a news release from the state Libertarian party saying the state director of public safety sent a letter to candidates named in the memo — Bob Barr, Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin — acknowledging that references to them, and to political parties or movements, shouldn't have been made in a discussion of how to identify domestic terrorists.

The news release quotes director John Britt as saying:

"In recognition of the mistaken inclusion of this information by the MIAC in its February 20, 2009 report on the militia movement, I have ordered that the offending report be edited so as to excise all reference to Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin and to any third-party political organizations. Additionally, you may rest assured that the report is not posted on any website maintained by the State of Missouri.

"The Missouri Department of Public Safety regrets any inconvenience or issues caused inadvertently by the unnecessary inclusion of certain components by MIAC in its militia report."

By the way, this story has now gone uber-national, as this Google search illustrates.