The Myth of Homegrown Islamic Terrorism in the U.S.

[steve2470]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599204404700;_ylt=At_87FxDaxTm5b7XKbexgNhH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTJ1ZjEycDBvBGFzc2V0Ay9zL3RpbWUvMDg1OTkyMDQ0MDQ3MDAEY2NvZGUDbXBfZWNfOF8xMARjcG9zAzQEcG9zAzQEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawN0aGVteXRob2Zob20-

There is a specter haunting the U.S. It is "one of the things that keeps me up at night," Attorney General Eric Holder said last month. North Carolina Representative Sue Myrick, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, has warned President Obama that "there is no doubt" the problem has become "a global threat." The incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Peter King, plans to convene hearings next month on the danger "that threatens the security of us all."

In the wake of the Tucson, Ariz., tragedy, you might think that such high-profile alarm would center on the shortcomings of America's mental-health system or the inadequacy of the country's gun laws. You would be mistaken. Instead, some members of the political class remain fixated on what they regard as a greater national emergency: the purported rise of "homegrown" Islamic terrorists. They point to a string of examples of jihadist activity by U.S. citizens of Muslim faith: the Somali-born Portland, Ore., man who tried to detonate a dud car bomb planted by the FBI at a December tree-lighting ceremony; last summer's failed Times Square bombing by a naturalized Pakistani; the 14 men charged last August with providing support to Islamist militants in Somalia.

And then there's Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemen-based Internet imam late of Falls Church, Va., who intelligence officials say now acts as a regional commander for al-Qaeda, with the charge of recruiting impressionable American Muslims to take up arms against their country. In the eyes of some, al-Awlaki and his ilk represent the vanguard of an even more sinister trend: the growing "radicalization" of the estimated 5 million Muslims living in the U.S. "Radicalization is taking place inside America," Myrick wrote in her letter to Obama. "The strikingly accelerated rate of American Muslims arrested for involvement in terrorist activities since May 2009 makes this fact self-evident."

Actually, it doesn't. Though acts of violent extremism by U.S. Muslims appear to have grown, their potency has not. American Muslims remain more moderate, diverse and integrated than the Muslim populations in any other Western society. Despite the efforts of al-Qaeda propagandists like al-Awlaki, the evidence of even modest sympathy for the enemy existing inside the U.S. is minuscule. The paranoia about homegrown terrorism thus vastly overstates al-Qaeda's strength and reflects our leaders' inability to make honest assessments about the true threats to America's security.

[DCKit]

1. Our continued demonization and marginalization of American Muslims...

is intended to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Psy-Ops 101.

[leveymg]

2. Al-Awlaki is Emmanuel Goldstein.

Even when I agree with the author, I often can't believe the level of naiveté among people who purport to know something about terrorism and Counter-Terrorism (CT).

Al-Awlaki is Emmanuel Goldstein. The only evidence his amazing longevity presents is confirmation that the CIA has been aware in advance of the identities and intentions of most of the actual and attempted terrorist attackers on the U.S. during the last decade,including the 9/11 hijackers, because he and other obvious double-agents helped orchestrate the plots. That's just how CT operates. The fact that on 9/11 the attacks occurred, despite this, is another issue altogether - and frankly, the one that people should have focused on years ago.