TrendNoticeable increase in the number of Americans arrested for al Qaeda-related terrorism

The domestic landscape of terrorism in the United States is changing: there is no escaping the fact the most alarming thing about a string of
recently arrested terror suspects is that they are all Americans; more
than a dozen Americans have been captured or identified by the U.S.
government and its allies over the past two years for actively
supporting jihad; some, according to prosecutors, were inspired by the
U.S. involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; others, like the
accused Pennsylvania woman, wanted to avenge what they considered an
insult to the Prophet Mohammed; many traveled overseas to get terrorist
training; some used home computers to foment plots; says a terrorism
expert: "There really is no profile of a terror suspect; the profile is
broken, [and] it's women as well as men, it's lifelong Muslims as well
as converts, it's college students as well as jailbirds"

DHS secretary Janet Napolitano may want to debate the fine semantic aspects of whether or not flying a small plane into the IRS building in Austin,
Texas, should be construed as an act of terrorism, but there is no
escaping the fact the most alarming thing about a string of recently
arrested terror suspects is that they are all Americans. Over the past
week, a Pennsylvania woman, accused in a plot to kill a Swedish
cartoonist, and a radicalized New Jersey man held by authorities in
Yemen have become the latest cases among more than a dozen Americans
captured or identified by the U.S. government and its allies over the
past two years for actively supporting jihad, or holy war.

AP reports that some, according to prosecutors, were inspired by the U.S. involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Others, like the accused
Pennsylvania woman, wanted to avenge what they considered an insult to
the Prophet Mohammed. Many traveled overseas to get terrorist training.
Some used home computers to foment plots.

There is no evidence that these cases are connected in any way (this is why Napolitano, who described the attacker of the Austin IRS building as a ‘lone wolf,” said it was not a case of terrorism), but
these cases underscore the new reality that there is a threat from
violent Islamic extremism from within the United States. “It is
difficult to say whether the uptick in cases is because law enforcement
has gotten better at catching suspects or if there are simply more to
catch,” AP comments.

Most of the cases ended with suspects captured before they could act on their plans. Some, however, were nearly ready to spring to action, like Queens resident Najibullah Zazi, 24, who pleaded guilty in
February as the leader of a plot to bomb the New York subway system.
Law enforcement was too late to prevent a shooting rampage in December
on the military post at Fort Hood, Texas. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, 39, a
U.S.-born Army psychiatrist of Palestinian descent, is charged with
killing 13 people.

Determining how quickly a suspected homegrown terrorist goes from adopting extremist rhetoric to becoming a suicide bomber is also a challenge to law enforcement. Some people never make that leap. Others
do it in a matter of months or years.

“Individuals can be radicalized in a number of ways — by direct contact with terrorists abroad or in the United States, over the Internet or on their own through a process of
self-radicalization,” said Assistant Attorney General David Kris, the
top counterterrorism official at the Justice Department. These cases,
Kris said, “underscore the constantly evolving nature of the threat
we face.”

For years U.S. officials have predicted there would be a rise in homegrown terrorism. “Now we’re beginning to see the predictions coming true,” said Michael Chertoff, the former DHS secretary. Because of
this, Chertoff said, it is critical for communities to be on the
lookout for unusual behavior. Law enforcement, he added, needs to
continue to educate people on the differing signs of terrorism.

There is no single reason people drift toward terrorism. “It’s a combination of psychology, sociology and people who, just for cultural reasons, gravitate” to Islamic extremism, Chertoff said. “We can’t
assume we’ve got months and years.”