MORE public concern about US-based (homegrown) terror cells:
U.S. intelligence and law enforcement authorities are discovering new home-grown cells of Islamist radicals in the United States that draw inspiration and moral support from al Qaeda, officials said on Tuesday.
Like local terrorism cells that have recently come to light in Canada and Europe, officials said the groups are comprised of disaffected young men in their teens and 20s who rely on the Internet to try to organise and plan potential attacks on the U.S. homeland.
Concern about attacks inside the United States gathered pace after the arrest earlier this month in Canada of 17 men -- all Canadian citizens or residents -- accused of planning al Qaeda-inspired attacks across densely populated southern Ontario.
Scott Redd, director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, said in a written statement to the Senate that the emergence of home-grown terrorist groups is posing "real challenges" for U.S. authorities despite law enforcement successes at disrupting potential attacks.
"We are grappling with a whole new set of questions: what forces give rise to this violent ideology in immigrant communities that may appear otherwise to be quite well assimilated? ... What signs should we be looking for to try to draw early warning of potential problems?" the statement said.
In later oral testimony, Redd said home-grown cells were a new domestic phenomenon for which the FBI and law enforcement agencies had no "baseline" for measuring the scale of the problem.
Redd declined to discuss details with senators in public but cited recent arrests of terrorism suspects in California and Georgia.
"That's three in a little over a year, and there are obviously other investigations ongoing," Redd told the committee.
"...declined to discuss details in public..."
Hello!!! Peg? (Keg? whatever)...Pay attention!!
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