Feds: Homegrown terrorists pose new threat

WASHINGTON - Efforts by terrorists abroad to radicalize and recruit U.S. residents present new security threats, three top Obama administration officials told Congress yesterday.

The threat posed by homegrown extremists shows that the battle against terrorism has become more complex in the past year, underscoring the challenges of pinpointing and blocking terrorist plots, said Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

"Groups affiliated with al-Qaida are now actively targeting the United States and looking to use Americans or Westerners who are able to remain undetected by heightened security measures," FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

It appears that "domestic radicalization and homegrown extremism" is becoming more pronounced, Mueller said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said al-Qaida has inspired terrorist organizations. "We are all seeing more diverse activity" by a more diverse collection of groups, she said.

Leiter said al-Qaida in Pakistan is at one of its weakest points organizationally. Nonetheless, he said, the terrorist group remains a capable and determined enemy that has proven its resilience over time.

A year ago, the FBI arrested Michael C. Finton in Illinois and Hosam Smadi in Texas in connection with unrelated bomb attempts. The bureau used online undercover agents and confidential human sources who monitored Finton and Smadi until their arrests.

Several U.S. residents from Somali-American communities in Minneapolis were recruited to fight with the Somali-based terrorist group al-Shabab. That prompted the FBI to deploy bureau personnel to cities with high ethnic Somali populations in an outreach initiative to community leaders.

In his prepared testimony, Mueller said it is possible that more American extremists are feeling increasingly disenchanted with living in the United States or are angry about U.S. and Western foreign policy, "making their decision to leave for extremist opportunities abroad all the more appealing."

Omar Hammami, an Alabama man now known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, or "the American," has become one of al-Shabab's most high-profile members and appeared in a jihadist video in May 2009.