| A special Unit to fight "Homegrown Terrorists" |
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| Friday, 16 March 2007 | ||||
 The US Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff declared Wednesday that they have just created a special unit to fight the so-called “Homegrown terrorists”, that is citizens or residents who plan terrorist attack from inside the nation. Even if , as Chertoff said, this kind of extremists are considered just as part of a “small, fringe element within the American Muslim community,” they could definitely represent a threat for people and for US political balances, that’s why this fight will be taken as a serious challenge to be faced using all the available means. Homeland's new unit will address all forms of extremist activity and it will focus mainly on the threat from radicalized Muslims. The group has recently met with officials in 18 US cities to get a handle on the problem. Specifically, as reported by USA Today, analysts pointed a finger at “Radicalization” , a growing phenomenon in needy environments. Radical and extremist feelings could result into the affiliation to violent groups that could "manipulate social situations to create perceptions of victimization" and then provoke police or political responses that can be used as propaganda. There are groups in the USA that serve as "gateways" for radicalization and impressionable students are particularly susceptible to charismatic leaders aiming to "instill a brand of extreme ideology." The last major attack by homegrown terrorists was the Oklahoma City bombing that was carried out in 1995 by a group of American born extremists. Just one month later, the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College released a report where the scholar Stephen Sloan tried to define the degree of vulnerability of the United States. The focus-threats were, in his opinion: Cold War’s “heirloom” , anti-militarist groups and religious extremism. According to the author, the threat represented by terrorist groups operating in the country is every day more hard to face for counterterrorism institutions. The report says that the problem of penetrating this thorny environment “ is further exacerbated by the fact that it is difficult to infiltrate terrorist cells to acquire the tactical information needed to prevent, or at least to mitigate, a potential threat or actual incident. The most sophisticated capabilities in the arsenal of technical intelligence are no substitutes for the HUMINT (human intelligence) capabilities that are needed to gather information on terrorists. The problem of predictive analysis is further complicated by the fact that even if terrorist organizations have an encompassing ideology or what is at best a proto-strategy it tends to be rather general in nature and directed at establishing a broad declaration on revolutionary action that may not provide a clear plan for action that can enable the analyst to have a foundation for assessing future terrorist operations.” This study focuses on technology as a weapon in the hands of future terrorists, but it could not exactly say yet which technological changes would turn out to be determining for terrorists and counterterrorism, and what kind of consequences they would bring about. Moreover the report focused on the fact that “The threat posed by fundamentalist religious groups of all faiths cannot be discounted. Not only Islamic extremists, but other "true believers" of a variety of faiths are likely to engage in terrorist acts against American targets. These groups might be supported or joined in their operations by domestic religious extremists. In addition, they might also seek alliances with a variety of cultists, survivalists, or neo-fascists who, for their own reasons, reject the existing social, economic, and political order and await their own versions of Armageddon.”
Twelve years later these concepts have been developed, expanded, deepened.. but they are still incredibly valid.
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