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Homegrown Terror in the U.S.

FEBRUARY 2011

  • In the wake of America’s financial crisis, al-Qaeda undertook a strategic shift, described in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s Inspire magazine as “the strategy of a thousand cuts,” which emphasizes smaller yet more frequent attacks. Homegrown terrorists play an important part in this strategy.
  • There are multiple reasons homegrown terrorists pose a danger to the U.S. These include the fact that you cannot stop them at the border, their cultural familiarity, and their ability to blend into American society.
  • There have been a number of homegrown terrorist plots since 9/11.  One recent attack was the 2009 shooting spree carried out by Major Nidal Malik Hassan at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 and wounded 30. Another plot was the attempt to set off a car bomb in Manhattan by naturalized American citizen Faizal Shahzad.
  • One significant trend in homegrown terrorism is the recruitment of Somalis living in the U.S. to return to Somalia and liaise with the jihadi group al Shabaab. There have been several major groups of individuals arrested in the U.S. for supporting al Shabaab, and facilitating al Shabaab recruitment. Additionally, two New Jersey men were arrested by authorities in June 2010 with the intent of joining this group.
  • Some observers frame homegrown terrorism as entirely distinct from, and even opposed to, the problem of terror networks. There is, in fact, no sharp divide between the two: homegrown terrorists have acted in service of terror networks before in significant ways, and there is evidence that networks improve their effectiveness.
  • What are the causes of radicalization? A number of factors are driving people toward homegrown terrorism. Prominent among these causes are political grievances and also jihadi ideology. FDD’s study Homegrown Terrorists in the U.S. and U.K. comprehensively analyzes the role of religious ideology in the radicalization process.
  • The U.S. at this point does not have a comprehensive strategy for combating violent extremism (CVE), unlike most European countries. This is not just due to the U.S.’s federalist structure: the U.S. did in fact have a CVE policy in the past.
  • Adoption a comprehensive strategy at a national level will better help the U.S. to use all elements of national power to diminish radicalization.