Researchers: Damage Threat From U.S. Extremists May Be Greater Than From Foreign Terrorists

[Purveyor]

BOSTON (AP) -- When it comes to fears about a terrorist attack, people in the U.S. usually focus on Osama bin Laden and foreign-based radical groups. Yet researchers say domestic extremists who commit violence in the name of their cause -- abortion or the environment, for example -- account for most of the damage from such incidents in this country.

These homegrown groups are seven times more likely than overseas groups to commit some kind of violence in the United States, a panel reported Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In many ways, actions by these domestic extremists can be termed "terrorist'' cases, the researchers indicated. "The typical 'terrorist' is an alienated guy, usually a young male,'' said Brian Forst of American University in Washington.

"They take comfort in like-minded souls and develop an idea they think will make a splash,'' he said. They do not always carry it out, but sometimes they do, he said. "They are not lunatics.''

More research is needed into these domestic extremists and what leads them to commit violence, said Gary LaFree of the National Center for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism in College Park, Md.

---EOE---

http://www.dailymail.com/News/200802170178

[niyad]

1. the reichwingnuts in this country worry me far more than OBL and company

it isn't muslims blowing up abortion clinics and killing abortion doctors and clinic workers. it isn't muslims on murderous rampages in our schools. it isn't muslims protesting at the funerals of gays and soldiers and blaming god for their deaths.

[Adsos Letter]

5. and it wasn't Muslims that carried out the Oklahoma City bombing...

those folks were "home-grown."

[niyad]

6. thanks, I had forgotten to include that horrific event.

and it wasn't a muslim who killed four people here in colorado recently, in arvada and the springs. and it isn't muslims in the militias, aryan nation groups, etc.

[ingac70]

7. You aren't keeping up with the wingnuts...

the new tin foil hat RW conspiracy is that McVeigh had ties to Islamic extremists... I shit you not.

[Adsos Letter]

8. I am always interested in how conspiracy theories evolve...

especially when the simplest explanations are discarded for outlandish ones. As I recall, McVeigh carried out his attack as a response to Ruby Ridge and the destruction of the Davidian compound at Waco, an explanation bolstered by the fact that the Murrah bombing took place on the 2nd anniversary of the burning of the Davidian compound (another group with less-than-peaceful intentions).

I'll have to go look up what the Wingnuts are saying about it these days...

:hi:

[ingac70]

12. It was brought to my attention by a rabid bushbot...

He sent me all sorts of links on the "subject" when I was using McVeigh as an example of a Christian terrorist.

[Adsos Letter]

14. Interesting!

Were you using the argument as part of a simple discussion, or are you studying the issue? I've been visiting the subject occasionally over the last few years as part of my BA/MA studies in History.

There are some great resources out there; for instance, have you read Terror in the Mind of God by Juergensmeyer, or "Expecting the End" edited by Newport/Gribben?

There are TONS of good sources out there; one very good one on-line is Chip Berlet's "Political Research Associate" which has extensive files and articles on Right-Wing Populism, hate groups, "Christian" terrorists, etc.

Here is the link: http://www.publiceye.org/index.html

In my opinion there needs to be a very open and public dialog on the agendas and influence of these groups.

:hi:

[ingac70]

31. ....

I only have a passing interest in the subject, no in depth study..

Thanks for the info. Bookmarked.

I do know McVeigh had ties to the Christian Identity Movement.

[spoony]

18. Ugh, except that McVeigh wasn't a Christian.

[Adsos Letter]

20. You and I wouldn't classify him as a Christian...

but his view of things was much more in line with the "Christianity" espoused by White Supremacists.

[spoony]

21. No, I mean in his own words

Of course his actions weren't Christian, but he was an avowed agnostic:


From an interview with the authors of "American Terrorist":

Question from chat room: Does McVeigh have any spiritual-religious beliefs?

Lou Michel: McVeigh is agnostic. He doesn't believe in God, but he won't rule out the possibility. I asked him, "What if there is a heaven and hell?"

He said that once he crosses over the line from life to death, if there is something on the other side, he will -- and this is using his military jargon -- "adapt, improvise, and overcome." Death to him is all part of the adventure.

http://www.cnn.com/COMMUNITY/transcripts/2001/04/04/michelherbeck/

[Adsos Letter]

22. Interesting!

Thanks, I hadn't realized that; only that he justified his actions by the governments actions at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

I guess I just assumed the connection to white supremacy and their whacked version of Christianity.

Thanks for educating me!

:hi:

[spoony]

29. Sure thing mate, and they were (are) whacked no doubt

[ingac70]

30. McVeigh had ties to the Christian ID Movement

http://eyeonhate.com/mcveigh/mcveigh3.html

[spoony]

32. Read your own link

"Timothy McVeigh was an agnostic. There is nothing indicating that he ascribed to the Identity religion."

His connexion to them was not religion, it was right-wing extremism. He never spoke of religion or ascribed his deed to religious ideals. He was not a Christian. So how anyone can, with any shred of intellectual integrity, call him a "Christian terrorist" is beyond me.

[End Of The Road]

2. Better send the cops to lock us up now.

But if everyone is in a FEMA camp, who will be left to shop at WalMart?

[KillCapitalism]

3. No kidding.

I'm more afraid of college campus shooters than I am of Arabs flying planes into buildings.

[malaise]

4. These homegrown groups?

Bushco?

[greenman3610]

9. if a muslim nut had carried out the recent attack in Illinois,

instead of just a run of the mill white boy nut,
we'd be using it as an excuse to bomb iran.

[canoeist52]

10. Ever notice any time this administration come close to

being held accountable for any wrongdoing someone shots a bunch of people???

[warren pease]

11. Thank gawd for...

The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.

Which will help counteract this threat to "homeland security" through ever more comprehensive domestic spying, particularly on Internet communications, because...

(2) The promotion of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism and ideologically based violence exists in the United States and poses a threat to homeland security.

(3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.

Just makes you feel all warm and safe inside, doesn't it?


wp

[Adsos Letter]

15. Yeah....

they take the existence of a potentiality and use it to further erode privacy rights...

One begins to wonder if there is any real way to stop the assault on our liberties...

[canoeist52]

13. maybe this seems over the top but

I'm reading "The Shock Doctrine" and Naomi Klein says that the CIA adopted the research of a doctor that took patients suffering from mild mental illness and electric shocked them to "reprogram" and put it to their own purposes. Some of this research is used today in the CIA manuals.

[Adsos Letter]

16. Ya know...

to me your question isn't so much about being "over the top" but about the difficulty in identifying what may or may not be doable, and then whether someone has actually done it; for instance, Timothy McVeigh was obsessed with the idea that the government had implanted some kind of chip into him...

Could it have happened? Sure. But did it happen, or was it simply the obsession of a guy also obsessed with conspiracies about "one-world government" who had "lost it" somewhere along the way?

Since at least the time of the Kennedy Assassination we have been awash in conspiratorial interpretations of events, some of which have left very important questions unanswered, that it becomes difficult to apply the simple "smell test" to many things.

[canoeist52]

17. hmmm.. but they don't have to do anythins as scientific as plant a chip- just bring them down to

a simplistic state, as they did in the Canadian research, then plant ideas. This is how suicidal bombers are trained

[Adsos Letter]

19. I agree that that approach is much more likely

if you consider it on a mass scale, Germany during the 20's-30's was brought down to a type of simplistic state and then fed propaganda (repeated over and over) to guide 2/3 of the population into following National Socialist philosophy or, at least, not resist it. (although the threat and use of violence probably doesn't enter into the terrorist example you cite)

Do you have a link to the Canadian study? I would be interested in reading that.

[canoeist52]

23. No link but the name is Dr. Ewan Cameron at McGill University's Allan Memorial

Institute. He was funded by the CIA. Nine patients sued the CIA and the Canadian govt. "The Shock Doctrine" is a must read to understand this new world order.

[canoeist52]

25. link to Dr. Cameron

http://www.freedommag.org/english/canada/vol004i1/page10.htm

[Adsos Letter]

27. Thankyou!

:)

[annabanana]

33. Note: source is Scientology based.. . . . n/t

[crimsonblue]

24. thank Xenu for the "Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act".

:sarcasm:

[Summer93]

26. Fright Night movies on Valentines Day?

Take a look at what is offered on t.v. it is all battles/war on any subject. So many movies are based on violence both on t.v. and at the local theater. Our children are taught from early on that violence is a way to handle things. T.v. does not teach them to negotiate or discuss whatever they are going through.

Our society has become intolerant of people who are gentle/overweight/brown/yellow/green skinned/poor/elderly/sick, etc.

The news must have a red background every day. Local news is only about murders/fires/traffic accidents and weather(storm central). The report on the recent tornadoes was cast as the "Trail of Terror" with the word terror much larger and red.

When I do turn on t.v. I realize how repeative it is. The violence is not something that I want to "entertain" myself with so I turn it off.

Has the war on drugs been won? Has the war on cancer been won? How about the war on obesity?

[Rex]

28. Well shit, an alienated guy, usually young male could be almost anyone!

Better start locking us all up right now! Just to be safe.