Terrorist incidents over the past 12 months show that Islamic extremists within the U.S. increasingly are launching attacks against targets such as military bases, antiterrorist experts said Thursday.
“The threat is now increasingly from within, from homegrown terrorists who are inspired by violent Islamist ideology to plan and execute attacks where they live,” said Mitchell Silber, director of intelligence analysis for the New York City Police Department.
Silber was among witnesses testifying to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has started an investigation into events leading up to the Nov. 5 rampage at Fort Hood, in which 13 people were killed and 43 were injured.
While it may be “premature” to link the shootings at the Texas Army base to homegrown radical Islamic terrorism, the incident is similar to other recent incidents at military bases, said Juan Zarate, President George W. Bush’s deputy national security adviser.
“Unfortunately, this event follows in a line of attacks against military personnel,” said Zarate, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
