Homegrown terror stares US in the face

String of arrests shows challenge of American terrorists

Over the past week, a Pennsylvania woman, accused in a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist, and a radicalised New Jersey man held by authorities in Yemen have become the latest cases among more than a dozen Americans captured or identified by the US government and its allies over the past two years for actively supporting jihad, or holy war.

Some, according to prosecutors, were inspired by the US involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Others, like the accused Pennsylvania woman, wanted to avenge what they considered an insult to the Prophet Mohammed. Many travelled overseas to get terrorist training.

There is no evidence that these cases are connected in any way. But they underscore the new reality that there is a threat from violent Islamic extremism from within the US.
Most of the cases ended with suspects captured before they could act on their plans. But some were nearly ready to spring to action, like Queens resident Najibullah Zazi, 24, who pleaded guilty in February as the leader of a plot to bomb the New York subway system.
And law enforcement was too late to prevent a shooting rampage in December on the military post at Fort Hood, Texas. Army Maj Nidal Hasan, 39, a US-born Army psychiatrist of Palestinian descent, is charged with killing 13 people.

For years US officials have predicted there would be a rise in homegrown terrorism. “Now we’re beginning to see the predictions coming true,” said Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary.

Determining how quickly a suspected homegrown terrorist goes from adopting extremist rhetoric to becoming a suicide bomber is also a challenge to law enforcement. Some people never make that leap. Others do it in a matter of months.

LaRose’s case

Colleen LaRose, the Pennsylvania woman who allegedly met violent jihadists online under the name ‘JihadJane’, took only months. LaRose, according to her boyfriend, never showed religious leanings during the five years they dated.

Some homegrown terrorists take much longer to show their militant leanings. In the case of North Carolina drywall contractor Daniel Boyd, federal prosecutors say he nursed his ambitions for jihad over decades.

Boyd is accused of leading a group of men — including two of his sons — who planned to kidnap, kill and maim people in other countries in the name of jihad.

Being an American with terrorist leanings is not an automatic ticket into a group like al-Qaeda. Many of these groups are suspicious of Americans and worry they are spies for the US government.

But in the world of jihadi recruitment, it’s like winning a gold medal when an American is trusted and decides to join a terrorist network.

Five Americans charged in Pak

A Pakistani court formally charged on Wednesday five young Americans of plotting terrorism in the country, their lawyer said, in a case that has raised alarm over the danger posed by militants using the Internet, Reuters reports from Islamabad.

The students, in their 20s and from the US state of Virginia, were detained in December in Sargodha, 190 km southeast of Islamabad, and accused of contacting militants over the Internet and plotting attacks. A defence lawyer for the men said the charges brought against his clients, included fund raising for terrorist acts.