Homegrown terrorismThe threat to military communities inside the United States
The Majority Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security has released a report on threats to the security of military communities in the United States; the report says that 70 percent of the plots against military targets occurred since mid-2009 — including the two successful homeland attacks since 9/11
Concerns rise over terror attacks on military communities in the U.S. // Source: stripes.com
The Majority Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security has released a report on threats to the security of military communities in the United States.
The report notes that the Department of Defense considers the U.S. Homeland the most dangerous place for a G.I. outside of foreign warzones – and the top threat they face here is from violent Islamist extremists. The report says that one way militant Islamists are penetrating U.S. defenses is through enlistment in the U.S. Armed Forces. A significant and growing number of military personnel, such as alleged Fort Hood mass murderer Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, pose a serious danger to their fellow soldiers.
The majority staff says that “at least thirty-three threats, plots, and strikes against U.S. military communities since 9/11 have been part of a surge of homegrown terrorism,” and it cites Attorney General Eric Holder who said about this phenomenon that it “keeps me up at night.”
The reports says that after al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was killed on 1 May, the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Defense Intelligence Agency warned thousands of U.S. law enforcement and security agencies about possible retaliatory attacks by al Qaeda, its allies, or unaffiliated homegrown terrorists on the U.S. military. Weeks after the Pakistan raid, two radicalized U.S. citizens allegedly plotted to attack military personnel in Seattle.
The majority staff says that its investigation has found that 70 percent of the plots against military targets occurred since mid-2009 — including the two successful homeland attacks since 9/11. Other key findings of the investigation:
• More than five terror plots have been disrupted involving U.S. military insiders in the past decade and at least eleven or more cases involved veterans or those who attempted to join law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The likelihood of another deadly attack by a trusted insider is a severe and emerging threat, which the Pentagon is aggressively investigating to identify perpetrators;
• Two successful attacks against the military outside of Afghanistan and Iraq were perpetrated by radicalized soldiers assigned to U.S.-based Army units: at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait in 2003 and at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009;
• At least sixteen external terror plots targeting military personnel stationed inside the U.S. homeland have been disrupted or investigated;
• At least nine other external plots were thwarted involving U.S. persons in the homeland who traveled or planned trips overseas to kill G.I.s in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere;
• A growing number of terrorist threats are directed at families of military personnel. Particularly at risk are relatives of troops in units involved in counterterror operations.
See the full report here.
