According to a CNN article today, four men from L.A. were charged with conspiring with the Taliban and "supporting terrorists who conspired to kill, kidnap or harm U.S. officers and other U.S. citizens, as well as bomb public places and government facilities." Ironically, the men were discovered in part through their posts on Facebook, which included "radical jihad content." Two of the men also told an undercover FBI agent (via online chat) of their intentions to join and aid al-Qaeda and took the same FBI agent to a firing range and a paintball center. At this point I'm questioning how intelligent these men really were: they told other people about their plans and openly professed their support for the Taliban in a country that (at the moment) fears anything remotely related to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Moving on: interestingly enough, only one of the four men was actually born in the U.S., although all are U.S. citizens (one was born in Afghanistan, one in Mexico, one in the Philippines, and one in Riverside). Furthermore, although we traditionally associate the Taliban and al-Qaeda with Middle Eastern countries, only one of the four men was racially Middle-Eastern. Also interesting is the fact that the Afghanistan-born citizen exposed two of the other men to radical Islam teachings through online sources. Although this may be one isolated example of domestic terrorism, to me it demonstrates the far-reaching influence of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. What do you think - is domestic terrorism and recruitment of Americans by radical Islamist groups a threat to our national security?
2 comments:
This type of recruitment does seemingly pose a threat because it gives the terrorists more options and versatility for attacks. However, hopefully incidents like these won't lead to paranoia that could potentially warp our view of our countries diversity. Ideally, the right balance between security and liberty can be maintained despite the unpredictable nature of terrorism.
The American population is so large and diverse that it isn't necessarily surprising to hear about internal dissent and loyalty to foreign interests. While domestic terrorist attacks are certainly a threat, I believe there are sufficient security measures in place to prevent such attacks. Unfortunately, incidents such as these tend to lead to paranoia that has historically put Americans at odds with each other (i.e. Red Scare, Japanese internment) or resulted in the loss of liberties for the sake of security (USA Patriot Act). Hopefully (and most likely), this will be seen as an isolated incident and there won't be any witch hunts in the next few weeks.
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