The enemy within

AP/NY Times:

Despite efforts to seal U.S. borders against terrorists, the threat may already be here, according to counterterror officials worried about Americans seeking to attack the country from the inside.

Whether al-Qaida sympathizers, abortion clinic bombers or a single eco-terrorist waging violence on behalf of the environment, U.S. authorities say a small number of fellow citizens pose as much a threat to the nation as foreign terrorists.

Coming on the heels of attacks in Madrid and London by self-organized, ad hoc cells of homegrown extremists, the threat was highlighted anew last weekend with Canada's arrests of 17 Muslim Canadians charged with running a terror ring from Ontario.

''We still have to look at al-Qaida as an organization, even though its ability to operate has been somewhat limited,'' Joseph Billy, acting assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, said in an Associated Press interview Monday.

''Then, on the other hand, you have maybe a lone wolf, maybe small groups, maybe a small cadre of people who may be working within their own country to want to plan for an act of terrorism in order to further their own objective,'' Billy said. ''I don't think one is any more likely than the other.''

A University of Maryland database compiling information on terror incidents worldwide since 1970 concludes that one of every seven attacks is carried out by a homegrown extremist. A January 2005 priority sheet for the Homeland Security Department listed domestic Islamic extremist groups and eco-terrorists as top threats.

Two Georgia men facing federal terrorism-related charges in the United States -- Ehsanul Islam Sadequee and Syed Haris Ahmed -- are linked to the Canadian case for allegedly recording ''casing videos'' of the Capitol and other potential targets in Washington. Ahmed's lawyer, Jack Martin, said there may have been some connection between his client and the suspects, but he insisted it wasn't part of any terrorism plot.

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Osama's ability to do spectacular attacks seems much reduced since 9-11. He has not been able to duplicate attacks like the one on the Cole either. While anti war liberals have aided his cause politically, the arrest of the Canadian jihadis has really undercut the anti war movement because it has demonstrated their policy alternatives would not work. It has substantially undercut their Iraq is to blame for everything theory.