TrendGrowing worries about terror groups' tech-savvy Western recruits

A senior intelligence official in the United States has warned of an increased risk of terror groups recruiting Westerners, using high technology, and stepping up attacks.

Speaking after a week in which the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan issued travel alerts on Europe following reports of possible Mumbai-style attacks, James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, also made clear President Barack Obama’s anger over leaks about the plot (see this ABC News report).

“The increasing role of Westerners, including Americans in al Qaeda-associated groups, increases their knowledge of Western culture and security practices and of course enhances their access,” Clapper said. “That obviously raises the potential specter of attacks.”

He noted that attempts in the United States had reached record levels over the past year, mentioning a Christmas day attempt to blow up a passenger flight over Detroit; a May 1 effort to explode a car bomb in Times Square and a plot to attack the New York subway as well as two “lone actor attacks” in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Fort Hood, Texas.

“Together they surpassed the number and pace of such attempts in any other year,” he said, expressing concern about the “ever growing use” of online social networks and blogs to radicalize Westerners. “When it comes to susceptibility to radicalization, virtual communities have become as important as physical communities.”

The Financial Times reports that U.S. and European agencies are sharing information about the possible threat in Europe, which could involve Mumbai-style gangs of gunmen with Western passports or residency.

Pakistani intelligence officials said this week a U.S. drone strike had killed German citizens training in Pakistan, although Washington and Berlin declined to confirm the reports.

While some U.S. officials indicate skepticism about reports of “hundreds” of Germans in extremist camps in the country, they express concern about perhaps 100 or so Westerners training with al Qaeda (see “British citizen killed in Pakistan linked to Times Square bomber,” 7 October 2010 HSNW; and “Pakistan: Several dozens of Europeans in terror training in Pakistan,” 4 October 2010 HSNW).

A report last month by the Washington, D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center, where Clapper spoke on Wednesday, said al Qaeda and like-minded groups had successfully recruited “dozens of American citizens and residents as foot soldiers since January 2009.”

Discussing a meeting with Obama the day before, Clapper held nothing back when discussing the president’s irritation about the initial leaks about the plot — which some intelligence agencies say impeded the investigation.

“I was ashamed to have to sit there and listen to the president express his great angst about the leaking,” Clapper said. “I am criticizing people who are allegedly government officials in responsible positions who have supposedly taken an oath to protect this country and, as the President remarked, the irony here is that people engaged in intelligence turn around and talk about it publicly.”