Critical Releases in Homeland Security: October 6, 2010

"This report describes homegrown violent jihadists and the plots and attacks that have occurred since 9/11. 'Homegrown' and 'domestic' are terms that describe terrorist activity or plots perpetrated within the United States or abroad by American citizens, legal permanent residents, or visitors radicalized largely within the United States. The term 'jihadist' describes radicalized individuals using Islam as an ideological and/or religious justification for their belief in the establishment of a global caliphate, or jurisdiction governed by a Muslim civil and religious leader known as a caliph. The term 'violent jihadist' characterizes jihadists who have made the jump to illegally supporting, plotting, or directly engaging in violent terrorist activity. The report also discusses the radicalization process and the forces driving violent extremist activity. It analyzes post-9/11 domestic jihadist terrorism, describes law enforcement and intelligence efforts to combat terrorism and the challenges associated with those efforts. It also outlines actions underway to build trust and partnership between community groups and government agencies and the tensions that may occur between law enforcement and engagement activities. One appendix provides details about each of the post-9/11 homegrown jihadist terrorist plots and attacks. A second appendix describes engagement and partnership activities by federal agencies with Muslim-American communities. Finally, the report offers policy considerations for Congress."

This document addresses the question of how the United States can engage international partners more effectively to address worldwide manifestations of destabilizing violence, often indiscriminately labeled "terrorism." The author, Michael D. Bayer served as chief of the Department of State's transnational criminal investigative office. Mr. Bayer's criticisms include that the primacy of the military/intelligence model in our foreign counterintelligence strategy makes insufficient use of the global networking capabilities of our many other American law enforcement agencies abroad. He also claims that both international criminal operations and terrorist networks often use the same illegal methods (smuggling, money laundering, drug trafficking). According to the report: "By carefully incorporating the contributions of U.S. law enforcement (and consequently worldwide law enforcement) into a comprehensive national security counterterrorism strategy, the National Security Council can build a formidable 'new counterterrorism instrument. As this approach is adopted, we will no longer need to confront the manifest threat to U.S. citizens here and abroad with only a part of our information arsenal."