Date: 2006-06-15
Speaker: JO ANN DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: S
State: Virginia

Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Speaker. some of the worst acts of radical Islamic terrorism have been committed by homegrown terrorists. and homegrown terrorists are citizens or residents of the Western countries who. without any direct contact with al Qaeda. adopt a militant radical Islamic outlook. and they seek to conduct acts of terrorism in support of the global jihad. Propaganda on the Internet. as we heard from you and from Mr. THORNBERRY. drives the movement. Groups like al Qaeda and the Zarqawi network use it to distribute their slick videos. to glorify the violent jihad. Homegrown terrorists committed. as I think you have said before. recent acts in Spain. the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The Madrid attack. for instance. on March 11. 2004. a group of Moroccans living in Spain attacked passenger trains in Madrid killing 190 people. and the plot was conceived. it was organized. and it was equipped with no support from international terrorist groups. Recent events have demonstrated that Europe is not the only place where homegrown Islamic militants can develop. On June 4. 2006. the Royal Canadian� Mounted Police arrested 17 Canadians for planning to attack Canadian government buildings. We have seen homegrown Islamic extremist groups in the United States. Our Federal. our State. and our local law enforcement agencies have so far been able to stop them before they could launch attacks. In August 2005. for instance. the FBI arrested four members of the JIS plotting to bomb military recruiting offices and synagogues in southern California. and this is the interesting part: The JIS was founded by an inmate at the California State Prison in Sa6ramento. and most members of the JIS are American citizens who were born and raised in the United States. They were radicalized and recruited into JIS while they were in prison. and as far as authorities know. none of these members had any contact with foreign terrorist groups. Last February. the Justice Department indicted three men in Ohio for aiding insurgents in. Iraq and planning to attack U.S. troops there. Two of the men were naturalized U.S. citizens. and one was a permanent legal. resident. The men learned their craft by downloading terrorism instructional videos from jihadist Internet sites. They had no contact with al Qaeda. Had they not been arrested. they may have started looking for local targets that they could attack. We cannot ignore the threat of homegrown terrorism. It is imperative that we understand which elements of our society are vulnerable to jihadist propaganda. how radicalization occurs. and how we can prevent Americans from. becoming pawns of al Qaeda. The British House of Commons concluded that the U.K. counterterrorism community did not anticipate the March 2005 suicide attacks because it did not understand homegrown terrorism and the radicalization process. We cannot make that same mistake. At the same time. we cannot let our concern about homegrown threats breed suspicion and distrust of our fellow Americans. The diversity and the harmony of the American people is our countrys greatest strength. and the global jihadist network we are fighting wants to divide us by inspiring homegrown terrorists whose attacks will spread. And I think Mr. THORNBERRY said it best. they are using the media. the Internet. They are using that to divide our country. and that is what will take us down. Mr. Speaker. That is why it is imperative that we continue on this course and we continue to fight this war on the away front. not the home front. Thank you. Mr. Chairman.