09/23/2010
”Homegrown” is a troubling term, since it can be so misleading when used by Washington bureaucrats. But that topic was a big theme in a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee held September 22 titled Nine Years after 9/11: Confronting the Threat to the Homeland.
For example Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square wanna-be bomber, is routinely called homegrown, even though he came here as a college student and had certainly formed much of his character and beliefs by that age. He might have been planted as a sleeper agent years ago or maybe not.
Many (though not all) homegrown terrorists are IMMIGRANTS, a term that PC Washington is loathe to use, because the next question is: Why do we continue to welcome likely enemies.
And the other unspoken question is, Is the uptick of attacks upon America due to the beliefs of jihadists that a guy friendly to their interests resides in the White House.
Senator Collins made some revealing remarks in her opening statement, mentioning a 2010 study (Assessing the Terrorist Threat) which reported,
””The American melting pot has not provided a firewall against the radicalization and recruitment of American citizens and residents though it has arguably lulled us into a sense of complacency that homegrown terrorism couldn’t happen in the United States.’It’s both disappointing and dangerous that our leaders have so little grasp of either history or psychology. It has been well documented that when the number of Muslims within a non-Muslim society reaches a critical mass, trouble begins and worsens with increased Islamic presence.Initially I remember we thought this was a problem that western Europe would have but that we would not have because of the differences in our culture.”
3 govt officials: Homegrown terrorists troubling, AP, September 22, 2010Apparently “extremist” is a handy dandy word that can be used to mean “immigrant” whenever a PC fill-in term is required.Efforts by terrorists abroad to radicalize and recruit U.S. residents present new security threats, three top Obama administration officials told Congress on Wednesday.
The threat posed by homegrown extremists shows that the battle against terrorism has become more complex in the past year, underscoring the challenges of pinpointing and blocking plots, said Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
”Groups affiliated with al-Qaida are now actively targeting the United States and looking to use Americans or Westerners who are able to remain undetected by heightened security measures,” FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
It appears that “domestic radicalization and homegrown extremism” is becoming more pronounced, Mueller said.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said al-Qaida has inspired an array of terrorist organizations.
”We are all seeing more diverse activity” by a more diverse collection of groups, Napolitano said.
Leiter said al-Qaida in Pakistan is at one of its weakest points organizationally. Nonetheless, he said, the terrorist group remains a capable and determined enemy that has proven its resilience over time.
Since 2009, at least 63 American citizens have been charged or convicted for terrorism or related crimes, “an astoundingly high number of American citizens who have attacked — or intended to attack — their own country,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., the committee’s chairman.
A year ago, the FBI arrested Michael C. Finton in Illinois and Hosam Smadi in Texas in connection with unrelated bomb attempts. The bureau used online undercover agents and confidential human sources who monitored Finton and Smadi until their arrests.
Several U.S. residents from Somali-American communities in Minneapolis were recruited to fight with the Somali-based terrorist group al-Shabab. That prompted the FBI to deploy bureau personnel to cities with high ethnic Somali populations in an outreach initiative to community leaders.
In his prepared testimony, Mueller said it is possible that more American extremists are feeling increasingly disenchanted with living in the United States or are angry about U.S. and Western foreign policy, “making their decision to leave for extremist opportunities abroad all the more appealing.”
Interestingly in FBI chief Robert Muller’s prepared statement about plots upended and arrests made, the only use of the word “Muslim” was in connection with outreach.
You can watch the hearing on C-SPAN.
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