Domestic radicalizationCongressional panel: political correctness hobbles efforts to deal with insider threat posed by Islamic radicals

Political correctness-inspired approach by the U.S. military toward domestic Islamic terrorism makes it difficult for the military to deal effectively with the threat this terrorism poses for U.S. military communities. These are the conclusion of a report published last week by the House Committee on Homeland Security. The report says that al Qaeda is using U.S.-based Muslim radicals to plan mass casualty attacks.

The report is the result of contentious series of hearings held by the committee on the issue of Islamic radicalization in the United States. The report’s discussion of the Islamic radicalization in the military is based on Hearing #4: “Homegrown Terrorism: The Threat to Military Communities Inside the United States.” The major findings of that hearing:

• The terrorist threat to military communities is severe and on the rise
• The “insider” threat to military communities is a significant and potentially devastating development
• Political correctness continues to stifle the military’s ability to effectively understand and counter the threat
• The administration chose political correctness over accurately labeling and identifying certain terrorist attacks appropriately, thereby denying Purple Hearts medals to killed and wounded troops in domestic terror Attacks

The report states that “Homegrown radicalization is now the vanguard of al Qaeda’s strategy to continue attacking the United States and its allies,” and goes on to say that the threat posed by radical Muslims to U.S. military communities is a major concern. This threat is “severe” and growing.

The report is critical of the Obama administration, saying it “chose political correctness over accurately labeling and identifying certain terrorist attacks appropriately, thereby denying Purple Heart medals to killed and wounded troops in domestic terror attacks.”

The report points to two recent cases of Islamic radicals’ threat to military communities:

• In June 2009 a U.S. Muslim convert named Carlos Bledsoe opened fire on a U.S. Army recruiting office in Arkansas. “Bledsoe specifically targeted the U.S. military to avenge what he believed was its mistreatment of Muslims,” the report said. “He also had traveled to Yemen and was radicalized to al Qaeda’s violent Islamist extremist ideology.”
• The other case is that of Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is charged with carrying out the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed thirteen people and wounded twenty-nine others. “In another glaring instance of al Qaeda-inspired homegrown terrorism, the government also neglected to indict Maj. Nidal Hasan on any terrorism-related charges, considering the case to be an example of ‘workplace violence’ despite his reported e-mail communications with the operational leader [of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula], the since-slain American terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki,” the report said.

Here are some of the points the report makes:

• Radicalization of American Muslims remains “a real and serious homeland security threat.”
• Muslims in the United States do not sufficiently cooperate with law enforcement in countering the threat.
• The U.S. government needs to “confront the Islamist ideology driving radicalization.”
• Islamist terrorists are being created in U.S. prisons as the result of a policy of permitting radical Muslim clerics to lecture in prisons or to distribute jihadist materials.
• In Somalia, more than forty American Muslims were radicalized and recruited by the Al-Shabaab group, an al Qaeda affiliate, and may pose a direct threat to U.S. national security.

The concludes that the U.S. government “cannot continue to simply ignore or deflect” the threat posed by radical American Muslims. “Unfortunately, it appears that within the United States, political correctness has prevented many from sufficiently acknowledging and tackling this dangerous problem,” the report says. “We continue to face an unwavering threat, and must be fully aware that homegrown radicalization is part of Al Qaeda’s strategy to continue attacking the United States.”

— Read more in The Radicalization of Muslim-Americans: The Committee on Homeland Security’s Investigation of the Continuing Threat