The arrest Saturday evening in New York of two alleged aspiring jihadists is further proof that recent warnings from the FBI and Homeland Security are based in fact: there is an increasing threat from "homegrown" terrorists.
According to authorities, Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, both of New Jersey and both United States citizens, were arrested at JFK Airport where they intended to travel to Egypt en route to Somalia to join jihadists in al Shabaab, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Among their more chilling statements was Alessa's advice to Almonte: "They only fear you when you have a gun and when you -- when you start killing them, and when you -- when you take their head, and you go like this, and you behead it on camera... we'll start doing killing here, if I can't do it over there."
In remarks that echoed those of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano earlier this year, FBI Director Robert Mueller called the threat posed to the United States by homegrown and lone-wolf extremists "equally serious" to that posed by al Qaeda.
There are plenty of examples to substantiate such warnings. In recent months, a number of plots involving U.S. citizens have been uncovered, including the attempted Times Square bombing, the alleged plot to attack shopping malls arising out of Sudbury, Massachusetts, and a planned attack of Grand Central Station, to name just a few. And just last week, two American citizens living in Ohio were arrested by federal authorities who charged that they were providing material support to Hezbollah.
What makes efforts to disrupt homegrown terrorists especially difficult is the absence of important layers in our national security strategy. While our visa issuance system, immigration controls, and airport security operations are far from perfect, they do pose increasingly difficult hurdles for foreign jihadists to overcome in order to import terrorism. So when radicals are cultivated right here at home, there are fewer chances to intervene and prevent an attack. Similarly, when lone-wolves are involved, intelligence officials have no network in which to tap to find plots before they become operational.
For example, extremists in Britain are largely born from mosques where radical imams indoctrinate them with hatred for the west. Here in the U.S., jihadists are using the internet to inspire and recruit Americans for their cause. It's a surprise to no one that the Alessa and Almonte were tuned into the radical lectures of Anwar al-Awlaki on the internet. Nor should it surprise anyone that Alessa and Almonte, as well as Najibullah Zazi and Tarek Mehanna in Sudbury are all in their twenties. U.S. law enforcement must now be looking for ringleaders who are transmitting from thousands of miles away, broadcasting from unknown locations to young radicals-in-waiting. How, then, to stem this rising tide?
A key element must be the adoption of a localized approach, such as the one taken by the New York Police Department. While the initial tip about the jihadist aspirations of Alessa and Almonte was provided to the FBI, it was an undercover officer from the NYPD's Intelligence Division that infiltrated the duo and established a basis for an arrest and prosecution. The NYPD has wisely worked hard to ensure its counterterrorism operation is not lacking for language specialists and people who can blend with the diverse groups from which radicals seek to indoctrinate followers.
It's this ability to get close to the community and to earn its trust and cooperation that is going to remain vital to stopping homegrown terrorists for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, this reality will be understood by federal officials and representatives who, ironically, hold the purse strings to important homeland security funding that will enable such useful efforts.