The Threat of Homegrown Terrrorism

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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Fighting The Fight Against Homegrown Terrorism

Recently, numerous headlines related to domestic or homegrown terror plots have caught the public’s attention and raised awareness to the threat.
Authorities have stated that there is no evidence the plots are related, so what are the concerns? Is this an anomaly, or are these telling signs that radicalization and the threat of homegrown terrorism in the U.S. is on the rise?

The Boston Herald takes a look at what may be fueling this activity and where we may need to look to stop it.

Keeping A Lid On Homegrown Terror

Authorities in Illinois arrested Michael Finton, a 29-year-old convert to Islam in an alleged plot to blow up a federal building in Springfield. The next day a 19-year-old Jordanian national was arrested for allegedly hatching a similar plot against a Dallas skyscraper. Finally, in what has been called by authorities the most serious attempt to strike the US homeland since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, authorities indicted Najibullah Zazi, a longtime US resident of Afghan descent who had allegedly planned to carry out bombings with chemicals he had purchased in beauty supply stores. These events seem to confirm what authorities have been saying for the last few years: while the overwhelming majority of the American Muslim community abhors terrorism, a small segment is not impermeable to radicalization.

European authorities have long struggled with the same issue, as hundreds of European Muslims have been involved in terrorist activities. Over the last few years US authorities have questioned whether the emergence of large numbers of radicalized Muslims could also take place here.

via Keeping a lid on homegrown terror – The Boston Globe.

Domestic Terror Threat Growing, Senate Committee Warns

There is an increasing threat of homegrown terror stemming from segments of a deeply isolated and alienated Somali-American community, a U.S. Senate committee hearing concluded Wednesday.

The hearing, conducted by the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee, focused on the attempted recruitment of young Somali-American men by al-Shabaab, “a violent and brutal extremist (Somali) group” with significant ties to al Qaeda, according to the U.S. State Department.

“Over the last two years, individuals from the Somali community in the United States, including American citizens, have left for Somalia to support and in some cases fight on behalf of al-Shabaab,” noted the committee’s chairman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut.

Al-Shabaab — also known as the Mujahedeen Youth Movement — was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in March 2008.

The hearing highlighted the case of Shirwa Ahmed, a 27-year-old Somali-American who had been radicalized by al-Shabaab in his adopted home state of Minnesota before traveling to Somalia and blowing up himself and 29 others in October.

The idea that Ahmed was radicalized in the United States raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community. The incident — the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen — was the “most significant case of homegrown American terrorism recruiting based on violent Islamist ideology,” Lieberman said.

“The dangers brought to light by these revelations is clear: radicalized individuals trained in terrorist tactics and in possession of American passports can clearly pose a threat to the security of our country,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

via Domestic terror threat growing, Senate committee warns – CNN.com.