The FBI’s new top agent in Los Angeles says the threat of homegrown militants remains a top concern five months after authorities uncovered an alleged terrorism plot by Americans targeting synagogues and military recruiting centers in the city, reports the Associated Press. “What keeps me awake at night? A homegrown cell that has taken seed and grown,” agent J. Stephen Tidwell told the AP. “That is one of the things that we fear the most.” Tidwell said the homegrown threat has increased as terrorist groups spread their ideology overseas through propaganda. One of the suicide bombers in the July attacks on London’s public transit system was a citizen who’d been radicalized in a year.
Though there currently is no specific credible threat against Los Angeles-area sites, Tidwell noted that the region is home to a number of possible targets, from Hollywood studios to the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, one of the world’s busiest. He expressed concern terrorists would try to carry out suicide bombings on those targets. “That’s why you see so much talk about suicide bombings,” he said. “That’s why you see every police department of any size going over to Israel to see how they’re dealing with it.”
Link: http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/14087587p-14917731c.html