Subjects of Interest:
American Military University (AMU)
Homeland Security Legal and Ethical Issues (HLSS322)
The AMU course, Homeland Security Legal and Ethical Issues, is designed to examine how homeland security efforts can balance national safety with the protection of civil liberties. The syllabus promises an exploration of homeland security legislation, executive orders, international law, conventions, and declarations. It focuses on how strategies for national security can coexist with constitutional rights, covering issues like surveillance, intelligence, immigration, transportation security, and cybersecurity.
The course largely stays within this mission. It focuses on government action, legal and ethical concerns, and most of the material centers on how homeland security policies can infringe on civil liberties. The curriculum doesn’t focus on violent extremist groups, right-wing, left-wing, or Islamist, because that isn’t its goal. The rare moments when extremist threats appear, such as in national strategy documents or lone wolf discussions, lean toward highlighting right-wing domestic threats, but these mentions are brief and not central to the course. Nonetheless, right-wing domestic threats were covered significantly more than any other threat, keeping with the pattern of AMU’s counter-terrorism curriculum.
Where the course falls short is in the age of its materials. Many assigned readings lean heavily around post-9/11, debates from the early 2010s, or policies that no longer reflect the modern legal and security environment. Surveillance, immigration, and cybersecurity sections, in particular, rely on sources that fail to address current issues. Even when newer documents are included, they often reflect priorities that are already shifting. This limits the course’s value for students who want to understand the legal and ethical challenges of today, not just those of past decades.
During the course, I shared these concerns directly with Prof. Ross. I explained my professional background, including my experience as a private investigator focused on political misconduct and domestic extremist groups, and I pointed out specific patterns I observed in the curriculum. Prof. Ross responded professionally and thoughtfully. He acknowledged that some of the course materials are outdated and agreed that my concerns about slant should be brought to the attention of those developing the curriculum. He expressed appreciation for the depth and clarity of my work and said he would forward my concerns to his Department Chair for review. This openness to feedback reflects well on the faculty, even if the curriculum itself needs updating. Unfortunately, my feedback will go to Dr. Brannum, the epicenter of the curriculum’s bias.
In the end, Homeland Security Legal and Ethical Issues meets its stated purpose by covering civil liberties and the legal limits on government power. It doesn’t push an obvious ideological bias. Its weakness lies in relying on outdated material and missing the opportunity to present a more balanced and practical understanding of how the law can address modern security challenges while protecting rights.
Click the links below for a breakdown of AMU’s counter-terrorism and homeland security curriculum. Each entry focuses on a specific course, pattern, or policy, exposing how bias undermines national security and professional training.
Why did you create Misleading by Design?
As a writer, I’ve experienced the joy of creating stories but also the frustration of navigating the publishing world. Behind the scenes, the process of marketing a book is filled with scams, schemes, and people looking to take advantage of authors. With over 30 years of experience in intelligence and investigations, I realized I could use those skills along with my writing background to help expose the bad actors in our industry and beyond. Misleading by Design is my way of fighting back.
Your projects seem all over the place. Why not just stick to one subject or theme?
At first glance, my projects might seem scattered. I write about ghost stories, spiritual preservation, investigative reporting, and even political analysis. But they all serve one purpose. Each one invites readers to interpret what they see based on their own beliefs, experiences, and instincts. That's the heart of Branching Plot Books. Whether it's a scroll sealed with a forgotten soul, a book that can be read multiple ways, or a report that exposes something hidden in plain sight, the goal is the same. I want readers to take an active role, to question the surface, and decide what they believe is real. The stories may differ, but the purpose is always connected.
What is Misleading by Design’s Briefing Room?
It’s an investigative blog that exposes political bias, fraud, scams, and manipulation in institutions that claim to educate or protect the public. That includes universities, publishing platforms, corporate programs, and anything else hiding an agenda behind a professional front.
Who runs this blog?
I do. Arthur Mills. I’m a retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 and former All-Source Intelligence Technician with 31 years of experience in intelligence and investigations. I’ve tracked extremist threats, exposed political corruption, and led intelligence operations. I’ve seen what real indoctrination looks like, and I’m calling it out when I see it again. This time in classrooms and consumer markets.
Are you affiliated with any political group?
No. I don’t work for any party, PAC, campaign, or media outlet. I’m not here to push an agenda or play politics. I’m here to expose whoever’s lying, misrepresenting, or manipulating others, regardless of which side they’re on.
When I worked in the private sector, I conducted opposition research and tracked domestic extremist groups from across the political spectrum. I’ve investigated threats from both the left and the right. I don’t excuse violence, bias, or propaganda just because it aligns with one side’s agenda. If you're hiding your motives behind credentials, credentials behind ideology, or ideology behind fake neutrality, you're part of the problem. And you’ll show up here.
Why are you investigating food? What does this have to do with Branching Plot Books?
Because it’s the most common scam nobody talks about. Fast food chains show thick burgers and crisp fries in their ads, then hand you a flattened mess in a greasy bag. Grocery stores use packaging that promises quality but delivers bland, shriveled, or half-empty products. It’s manipulation through presentation. They sell the illusion, not the item.
And that’s the same trick used in education, politics, publishing, and everywhere else. If they can sell you a lie in a sandwich, they can sell it anywhere.
Misleading by Design fits the larger mission of Branching Plot Books by turning real-world scams into something the reader has to question, interpret, and investigate. Like my other projects, it doesn’t hand you answers. It gives you evidence, patterns, and contradictions, then dares you to put the pieces together. Whether it’s testimonies from the lost souls, curriculum bias, staged food ads, or publishing cons, the goal is the same: to make you rethink what you’ve been told and see how easily truth gets packaged, sold, and distorted.
What made you investigate American Military University?
Because it claims to train intelligence and homeland security professionals. What it’s actually doing is grooming students to think one way, speak one way, and ignore anything that doesn’t fit the school's left-wing agenda. That isn’t education. That's political indoctrination.
When I was tracking domestic extremist groups, I kept asking the same question. Where does this hate come from? What feeds it? I suspected the root was in their education. What they were taught. What they were not taught. That includes schools and universities. The slogans change, but the indoctrination is baked in.
After retiring from the military, I decided to get the formal education to match my experience. I chose a degree in Counter-Terrorism from American Military University. It promotes itself as a leader in intelligence, counter-terrorism, and homeland defense. It’s one of the largest programs of its kind. On paper, it looked like the right fit.
It wasn’t.
Course after course, it became clear that AMU wasn’t teaching students how to counter terrorism. It was teaching them how to adopt one worldview. How to view one side as the enemy. How to justify violence and extremism from the other. This wasn’t counter-terrorism. It was a curriculum on how to become a left-wing extremist.
I document everything. The entire report is published on The Briefing Room, in serialized form. I sent it to professors and top university officials. They ignored it. They didn’t defend their curriculum. They didn’t ask for clarification. They ignored me. They know I’m on to them.
That's why I’m staying in the program. I’m not there for the degree anymore. I don’t need it. I’m there to finish the investigation. American Military University has built a propaganda machine. And I plan to expose every part of it.
Do you accept tips or leads?
Yes. If you’ve seen something worth investigating, send it through my contact page. I check everything personally.
This includes curriculum bias at any level, from elementary schools to universities. If you’ve seen political agendas being pushed in grade school lesson plans, high school classrooms, college syllabi, or university programs, I want to hear about it. If you’ve dealt with fake credentials, unethical hiring, publishing fraud, corporate indoctrination, or institutional censorship, send it in. I follow evidence, not agendas.
If something feels off and you think no one else will touch it, send it anyway. I’ll look into it.
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