Eight years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks – and just days after a terror plot was thwarted in Texas – the nation’s top anti-terrorist officials told Congress yesterday they are as worried about “homegrown” terrorists as they are about threats from abroad, reports the Houston Chronicle. FBI Director Robert Mueller said al-Qaida is recruiting longtime, legal residents of the U.S. to carry out terror attacks here, and the Internet is providing an avenue for people – who are otherwise not affiliated with anti-American groups – to “self-radicalize.”
Testifying before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Mueller and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stressed that terrorism is a threat throughout the U.S., not just in landmark cities like New York and Washington. “These events can happen anywhere in our country at any time,” Napolitano said. “We cannot limit our efforts to a few urban areas.”