Counterterrorism Expert: Threat Of Homegrown Terror Has Escalated

Ellison Barber at the Washington Free Beacon offers a piece on former FBI official David G. Major's assessment of the terrorism threat to the U.S.

The threat of homegrown terrorism has escalated in recent years, a counterintelligence and counterterrorism official said on Wednesday.

“To give you a sense of how big this thing is, and I’m only tracking the people and plots when somebody is arrested and charges are made. … Turns out now we’re up to 148 plots and 398 people,” David Major, a counterintelligence adviser to President Ronald Reagan and founder of the CI Centre, said at the International Spy Museum.

Homegrown or domestic terrorism is not confined to radical Islamists, Major said. Aaron Greene and Morgan Gliedman, Operation Backfire, or the shooting at the Wisconsin Sikh temple show terrorists run the gamut of ideologies.

However, as a society we tend to focus on the acts perpetrated by Islamic extremists. Critics have questioned the practicality of this, but Major says it is a logical focus.

The majority of the 148 plots were motivated by Caliphate doctrine, a term for the ideology of Islamist groups such as al Qaeda, Major told the Washington Free Beacon. 

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://freebeacon.com/counterterrorism-expert-threat-of-homegrown-terror-has-escalated/

Note: When I was doing security work for for the Defense Department years ago I traveled to Washington D. C. for annual briefings by the FBI, the CIA, NSA and the other intelligence agencies.

I recall attending several interesting and informative briefings performed by David G. Major, who was then with the FBI. A few years ago I met him at the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C. when I was covering a story for Counterterrorism magazine.