The Threat Within

Since the September 11 attacks in the United States of 2001, the concept of terrorism was conceived in people's minds that the enemy was some foreign radical element living off in some mountains half-a-world away. The reality is that the enemy is something that could be already inside the United States legally. There are several circumstances where intelligence officials warn that Al-Qaida has trained individuals who, as CIA Director Michael Hayden stated, "wouldn’t attract your attention if they were going through the Customs line at Dulles with you when you’re coming back from overseas.” This warning is one that we seriously need to understand to comprehend the growing threat.

My personal greatest fear is of a "lone wolf" threat as many dub it. The "lone wolf threat" is based on the premise that an individual with no foreign assistance or links is the attacker. This concept allows a person to take up arms without having traveled to a camp in Pakistan or Afghanistan. There are a number of people operating inside the United States who sympathize with Al-Qaida. The New York Times published an article last year discussing the significance of the internet and the jihadist movement. My concern lays in the fact that these people are blatantly promoting violence and terrorism as a form. These websites are developed not as a means to express freedom of speech, but rather to develop the next wave of jihadists. The fact that anybody believes that terrorism in any context is acceptable is one that should be of significant concern.

The proof of such a threat is not very far from recent foiled plots. If you look at the case of the two students arrested in South Carolina or the Liberty City 7, these are examples of how anybody can become a jihadist. Both cases involve people who haven't traveled to play with firearms and monkey bars in Afghanistan terror camps. These people had to first accept the fact that their cause was more important than any other price. Then they accepted jihad as a personal responsibility. The evolution of the terrorist mind is one that is taken for granted. Once a person identifies with the cause, law enforcement should be allowed to utilize all means necessary to make sure that these individuals will not become the next 9/11 hijackers or 7/7 bombers. Juries must understand that the acceptance of terrorism as a means is just as dangerous as the actual act. Once the public accepts this, then we can take pride that we are actually stopping terrorism. Until then, the message of violence that these people promote will continue to grow and create acts of terror.