US sees no strong Qaeda link with home-grown groups
Source: Reuters
By David Morgan WASHINGTON, March 14 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies have found no strong links between al Qaeda and radical home-grown Islamist groups in the country and such groups appear incapable of Sept. 11-scale attacks, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate committee that home-grown Islamists identified by U.S. law enforcement present a greater threat than white supremacists and other more traditional American extremists. "There are (Islamist) groups inside the country -- self-generated -- that could carry out acts of violence, Chertoff told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. But he added: "I think the sophistication would likely be a lot less than we saw on 9/11, and I think their chances of success would be somewhat less." More than five years after the 2001 attacks, administration officials said they know little about the process by which individuals are enticed to embrace violent Islamist ideology either through the Internet or by Islamist leaders. Charles Allen, the chief homeland security intelligence officer, told the same panel that extremists in the United States had been involved mainly in "aspirational plotting hatched largely by isolated actors who lack the will or the capability to carry out large scale attacks." "Plots involving home-grown extremists in the U.K. and western Europe have been linked to al Qaeda and other terrorist networks. We have yet to find such deep linkages in the United States," he added. Officials said Allen's remarks suggested there was no evidence of an active al Qaeda role in the recruitment, training or activities of home-grown U.S. extremists. U.S. officials view the militant group led by Osama bin Laden as the leading threat to the United States. President George W. Bush has justified his domestic spying program by emphasizing the need to track al Qaeda members and other Islamist militants through telephone and e-mail contacts with people in the United States. Officials said the Department of Homeland Security had assigned 30 analysts to study the phenomenon of Islamist radicalization in the United States, with a major initial focus on New York, New Jersey and California. "Ideally, we'd like to develop a warning capability on radicalization," Allen said. "Radicalization will eventually spawn operational attacks on the homeland, if we do not gain deeper insights into the phenomenon and actively work to deter it." Experts say the United States has seen little radicalization because the estimated 3 million to 7 million American Muslims are better integrated and more affluent than their European counterparts. But some lawmakers on Wednesday worried openly of impending problems. "I've had a few (Muslims) reach out to me and say that they really feel like second-class citizens ... because they are practicing Muslims," said Sen. Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat.
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