Indefinite Detention of Homegrown Terror Suspects, Citizens inside U.S. Unnecessary and Dangerous Erosion of Civil Liberties
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Like it or not, the term “Jihadist” has become a commonly used term in today’s political lexicon. In a Congressional Research Service (“CRS”) report titled “American Jihadist Terrorism: Combating a Complex Threat” and issued on November 15, 2011, the report’s author Jerome P. Bjelopera said the term “homegrown jihadist” describes “terrorist activity or plots perpetrated within the United States or abroad by American citizens, legal permanent residents, or visitors radicalized within the United States.” The analyst for the CRS in organized crime and terrorism said the term “jihadist” describes “radicalized individuals using Islam as an ideological and/or religious justification for their belief in the establishment of global caliphate, or jurisdiction governed by a Muslim civil and religious leader known as a caliph.”
The CRS’s report estimates there have been “53 homegrown violent jihadist plots or attacks in the United States since September 11, 2001.” Between May 2009 and October 2011, there were 32 arrests made in homegrown jihadist terror plots. And of the 53 terror plots since 9/11, only four were successful—and they were carried out by “lone wolves,” three of whom targeted military personnel through the use of firearms. There were three other lone wolf plots but they were unsuccessful as were the remaining plots that involved two or more participants.
The Fall issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report also found that homegrown jihadist terror plots have risen since 9/11 with more than half occurring since May 2009. The Intelligence Report, like Bjelopera’s report, found that “most of those arrested were influenced by English-language jihadist websites that encourage violence in pursuit of a global caliphate ruled by Islamic fundamentalists.” The CRS cited eight terror plots in 2011 alone.
Discovery of most of these plots, and subsequent government efforts to shape their direction, were made pursuant to the Government’s chief strategy in combating homegrown terrorism: Government undercover operatives used “to infiltrate terrorist conspiracies.” The CRS report said that the Justice Department and FBI operate 104 Joint Terrorism Task Forces in this country, with 69 of them having been established since 9/11. These task forces include more than “4,000 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers and agents” who “’investigate acts of terrorism that affect the U.S., its interests, property and citizens, including those employed by the U.S. and military personnel overseas.’” The importance of this effort can be measured by the increase of 125 to 878 “top-secret security clearances” issued to local law enforcement between 2007 and 2009 alone.
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