New Incidents Test Immunity to Terrorism on U.S. Soil

[iandhr]

Source: NY TIMES

WASHINGTON — As the years passed after Sept. 11, 2001, without another major attack on American soil and with no sign of hidden terrorist cells, many counterterrorism specialists reached a comforting conclusion: Muslims in the United States were not very vulnerable to radicalization.


American Muslims, the reasoning went, were well assimilated in diverse communities with room for advancement. They showed little of the alienation often on display among their European counterparts, let alone attraction to extremist violence.

But with a rash of recent cases in which Americans have been accused of being drawn into terrorist scheming, the rampage at Fort Hood, Tex., last month and now the alarming account of five young Virginia men who went to Pakistan and are suspected of seeking jihad, the notion that the United States has some immunity against homegrown terrorists is coming under new scrutiny.

It is a concern that President Obama noted in passing in his address on the decision to send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan, and one that has grown as the Afghan war and the hunt for Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan intensifies.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/us/12assess.html?pagewanted=1&hp

[villager]

1. I guess homegrown rightwing terrorism isn't to be discussed?

Or would that blow the article's thesis?

:shrug:

[shadowknows69]

2. How many innocent people had their phones and internet tapped

To come to this conclusion?

[boppers]

8. How many had phones and internet tapped? All of them?

Well, that's not entirely true. If you never looked at foreign web pages, or sent/received email that left the US, or made phone/fax calls to foreign countries, or IM'ed with someone outside of the US, chances are that your traffic wasn't examined.

Otherwise, your traffic was legally fair game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy

[eggplant]

3. Has everyone forgotten about the anthrax? n/t

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. "no sign of hidden terrorist cells"

.
.
.

If the terrorist cells are "hidden"

then there would be no sign,

right?

:freak:

[WCGreen]

5. crack me right the fuck up.....

[AlbertCat]

6. 1.3 million to 7 million Muslims live in America....

6 have gone rogue.

BE AFRAID!!!!!!

[SkyDaddy7]

7. Be careful!

I would hate myself if I made comments like some do here on DU and it does happen!

Of course, thats just me and my conscience.