NYPD Report on ‘Homegrown’ Terror Threat

Police Issue Report on ‘Homegrown’ Terror Threat

August 15, 2007, 12:03 pm

By Sewell Chan












The so-called Lackawanna Six, six Americans of Yemeni descent who were arrested
in 2002 and later pleaded guilty to charges of providing material support to Al Qaeda. (Photos: Associated Press)

Updated, 5:54 p.m. The city’s Police Department this morning released a report, “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” that examines, in 90 pages, how ordinary people in the West can become radicalized and followers of what the report calls a jihadist ideology. Although the findings in the new analysis are similar to those of other studies, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the report — prepared by the department’s Intelligence Division — was an important addition to his department’s arsenal of counterterrorism tools.
The full report is available at this link [pdf] on the department’s Web site.

Somewhat like a psychology textbook might, the report identifies four steps in the process of radicalization: pre-radicalization, self-identification, indoctrination and jihadization. The report found that “homegrown” terrorist plots — involving seemingly “unremarkable” people — were behind terror plots or attacks in Britain, Spain, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands.
The report examined three cases of “homegrown” terrorist activity in the United States: the so-called Lackawanna Six, six Yemeni-Americans who were arrested in 2002 and later pleaded guilty to charges of providing material support to Al Qaeda; the so-called Portland Seven, a diverse group of American Muslims who were charged in 2002 and 2003 with trying to join Al Qaeda; and the case of 11 Muslim men who played paintball in the Virginia woods in 2000 and 2001 as a means of training for global holy war and were later convicted of terrorism. The report also cited two New York City cases: a 2004 plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station and a 2004 case in which two New Yorkers traveled to Britain and joined up with elements of Al Qaeda.
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