The Threat of Homegrown Terrrorism
October 26, 2009 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Lydia Khalil, a former counterterrorism analyst for the New York Police Department, and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations looks at homegrown terrorism, recent plots and arrests and what they may signify.
The apprehension last week of Sudbury native Tarek Mehanna is the fifth terrorism-related arrest in the United States in as many months, putting homegrown radicalism back on the radar screen. But many question whether individuals like Mehanna are the “real deal.’’ Do they really pose a significant terrorist threat or are they acting out but lack the capability to inflict any real damage? How dangerous are homegrown radicals? Will the United States, like Europe, become more susceptible to native radicals rather than terrorist plots hatched abroad from organized groups like Al Qaeda?
Terrorism specialist Marc Sageman claims that we are facing a “leaderless jihad.’’ Al Qaeda central is not the driving force of terrorism as an operational machine but rather its ideology serves as an inspiration for self-organizing local groups to carry out their own attacks.
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On Tuesday Nov. 3, Homeland Security Television (HSTV) will be airing an interview with Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, director of the Center for Terrorism Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, on his two latest studies that look into the threat of homegrown terrorism and the radicalization process.
HSTV will also air an interview with Dr. Ayman Wasfy, an expert Arabic linguist, who argues that al-Qaeda’s recruiting can be defeated through a linguistic study of how the term al-Qaeda is used in the Quran. It’s a long-shot, but an interesting concept.