Homegrown Terrorists – America Faces The Enemies Within
For too long we as Americans have been complacent to believe that the threat of homegrown terrorism is gravest elsewhere, but looking at recent events, one can easily see that the threat here is growing and it’s time to take it seriously.
The NY Daily news reports on the growth and danger of homegrown terrorism
Case history documents how terrorists can fade into the fabric of the country’s pluralistic population and how easily they can fashion explosives out of readily available products.
Brooklyn-born Betim Kaziu was charged Thursday with attempting to join a Pakistani-based Al Qaeda affiliate in hopes of killing U.S. troops.
Jordanian Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested Thursday in Dallas for putting what he believed was a car bomb in an office-tower garage.
Michael Finton, a 29-year-old Illinois man who idolized American Taliban John Walker Lindh, was arrested Wednesday on charges of plotting to bomb a federal courthouse.
Long Islander Bryant Neal Vinas was busted in July for allegedly training with Al Qaeda in Pakistan, joining rocket attacks on U.S. forces and giving “expert advice” on the subways and Long Island Rail Road.
Three U.S. citizens and a Haitian immigrant were charged in May with conspiring to plant 37 pounds of explosive at two Bronx synagogues.
Three illegal-immigrant brothers from Macedonia were sentenced in April to life for plotting in 2007 to kill soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J.
Zazi, who was born in Afghanistan, ran a Manhattan doughnut cart. That’s how law-abiding, hardworking and, yes, normal, he seemed even as, probers believe, his heart beat as an engine of mass destruction.
via Read Article.
The Lone Wolf Jihadist
STRATFOR has long discussed the threat posed by lone wolf militants and the unique challenges they pose to law enforcement and security personnel. Of course, the primary challenge is that, by definition, lone wolves are solitary actors and it can be very difficult to determine their intentions before they act because they do not work with others. When militants are operating in a cell consisting of more than one person, there is a larger chance that one of them will get cold feet and reveal the plot to authorities, that law enforcement and intelligence personnel will intercept a communication between conspirators, or that law enforcement authorities will be able to introduce an informant into the group, as was the case in the recently foiled plot to bomb two Jewish targets in the Bronx and shoot down a military aircraft at a Newburgh, N.Y., Air National Guard base.
Obviously, lone wolves do not need to communicate with others or include them in the planning or execution of their plots. This ability to fly solo and under the radar of law enforcement has meant that some lone wolf militants such as Joseph Paul Franklin, Theodore Kaczynski and Eric Rudolph were able to operate for years before being identified and captured.
Lone wolves also pose problems because they can come from a variety of backgrounds with a wide range of motivations. While some lone wolves are politically motivated, others are religiously motivated and some are mentally unstable. Even among the religiously motivated there is variety.
