Describe how the United States has been affected by homegrown terrorists

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• In 1977 a group of ten homegrown religious radicals stormed three sites in Washington, DC and took more than 150 hostages.
• In May 2007 a group in New Jersey planned to enter Fort Dix and murder American soldiers.
• In 2009 FBI agents arrested an Afghan-born permanent legal resident of the United States and two friends for planning suicide attacks in New York City.
• Brian Jenkins found that 46 publically recorded attacks or attempted attacks came from homegrown jihadist terrorists between September 11, 2001 and December 2009
• Homegrown terrorists are produced a number of ways.
• Some are born in the United States and prepare to wage the jihad even though they have little contact with jihadists.
• Others, like John Walker Lindh and Adam Gadahn, leave the United States to join the jihad overseas.
• A third type threatens to become a hybrid form – American citizens may join experienced international sleeper cells hiding in America.
• One of the incubators for homegrown jihadists is the American prison system. America's prisons have many variations of Islam, and Wahhabi missionaries covertly preach religious militancy in them.
• Although prisons and jails are recruiting grounds, homegrown jihadists appear in different areas.
• In June 2006 JTTF officers arrested a group of jihadists in Miami and Atlanta who were not involved in any network, but authorities claimed they were plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago.
• The group did not even follow Islam. Its leader made up a religion combining Islam and other beliefs.
• The suspects were amateurs who had no real understanding of explosives, Islam, or the jihadist movement – such groups might become the greatest domestic threat. They are self-recruited, self-motivated, and self-trained.