Presented by: Homegrown Terrorism

The threats of domestic terrorism are also growing among radicalized Americans, as well as other extremists with no links to foreign terrorist organizations.

As distressingly, we have seen the emergence of self-radicalized populations. These are unbalanced individuals who, for whatever the reason, become motivated to harm the United States or American interests.

Brian Finlay, The Stimson Center

The U.S. faces domestic threats from American citizens or immigrants who have become radicalized and work with foreign terrorist organizations to attack the U.S. homeland. Emerging patterns of radicalization are increasingly tracking historic patterns in Europe and elsewhere around the globe. Another threat comes from self-radicalized groups that are not connected to foreign terrorist networks. These terrorists are much harder to detect because they do not engage in coordinated communications or other traditional organizational efforts that intelligence agencies can intercept and disrupt. Finally, these radicalized individuals may not be as easily found in typical terrorist target sites (such as Washington D.C. or New York City), but instead may be located and attack targets virtually anywhere in the U.S.

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