Domestic terrorism


Domestic terrorism or homegrown terrorism is a form of terrorism in which victims "within a country are targeted by a perpetrator with the same citizenship" as the victims. There are various different definitions of terrorism, with no universal agreement about it.
Unlike domestic terrorism, state terrorism is that perpetrated by nation states, but is not considered such by the state conducting it, making legality a grey area.

Definition

While there are many potential definitions of domestic terrorism, it is largely defined as terrorism in which the perpetrator targets his/her own country. Enders defines domestic terrorism as "homegrown in which the venue, target, and perpetrators are all from the same country." The term "homegrown terrorism" stems from jihadi terrorism against Westerners. Wilner and Dobouloz described homegrown terrorism as "autonomously organized radicalized Westerners with little direct assistance from transnational networks, usually organized within the home or host country, and targets fellow nationals."
The Congressional Research Service report, American Jihadist Terrorism: Combatting a Complex Threat, describes homegrown terrorism as a “terrorist activity or plots perpetuated within the United States or abroad by American citizens, permanent legal residents, or visitors radicalized largely within the United States.” The United States Department of State defined terrorism in 2003 as "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience." However, the U.S. government cannot charge someone with domestic terrorism because no such criminal law exists.
Under the 2001 USA Patriot Act, domestic terrorism is defined as "activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the U.S. or of any state; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S." This definition is made for the purposes of authorizing law enforcement investigations. While international terrorism is a defined crime in federal law, no federal criminal offense exists which is referred to as "domestic terrorism". Acts of domestic terrorism are federally charged under specific laws, such as killing federal agents or "attempting to use explosives to destroy a building in interstate commerce". Some state and local governments in the United States do have domestic crimes called "terrorism", including the District of Columbia.
In 2020, in response to Public Law 116-92, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice/FBI published the following definition of domestic terrorism: "Domestic Terrorism for the FBI’s purposes is referenced in U.S. Code at 18 U.S.C. 2331, and is defined as activities: Involving acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; Appearing to be intended to: Intimidate or coerce a civilian population; Influence the policy of government by intimidation or coercion; or Affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping; and Occurring primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States."
The 2020 publication notes the US Government broadly divides the domestic terrorism or domestic violent extremism threat into several threat categories, with the two largest being:
  • “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism: This threat encompasses the potentially unlawful use or threat of force or violence in furtherance of ideological agendas derived from bias, often related to race or ethnicity, held by the actor against others or a given population group. Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists purport to use both political and religious justifications to support their racially-or ethnically-based ideological objectives and criminal activities.”
  • “Anti-Government or Anti-Authority Violent Extremism: This threat encompasses the potentially unlawful use or threat of force or violence in furtherance of ideological agendas, derived from anti-government or anti-authority sentiment, including opposition to perceived economic, social, or racial hierarchies, or perceived government overreach, negligence, or illegitimacy.”

    Facts and studies

Homegrown terrorism is not new to the world. Security analysts have argued that after the end of the Cold War, military conflicts have increasingly involved violent non-state actors carrying out asymmetric warfare, of which terror attacks are one part. The United States has uncovered a number of alleged terrorist plots that have been successfully suppressed through domestic intelligence and law enforcement. The United States has begun to account for the threat of homegrown terrorism, as shown by increased volume of literature on the subject in recent years and increased number of terrorist websites since Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, began posting beheading videos in 2003. A July 2009 document by the FBI estimated that there were roughly 15,000 websites and web forums that support terrorist activities, with around 10,000 of them actively maintained. 80% of these sites are on U.S.-based servers.
According to the Congressional Research Service's study, American Jihadist Terrorism: Combatting a Complex Threat, between May 2009 and November 2010, law enforcement made arrests related to 22 homegrown jihadist-inspired terror plots by American citizens or legal residents of the U.S. This is a significant increase over the 21 plots caught in the seven interim years after the September 11 attacks. During these seven years, two plots resulted in attacks, compared to the two attacks between May 2009 and November 2010, which resulted in 14 deaths. This spike post-May 2009 shows that some Americans are susceptible to ideologies that support a violent form of jihad.
Roughly one-quarter of these plots have been linked to major international terrorist groups but an increasing number of Americans are holding high-level operational roles in these terrorist groups, especially al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups. The former CIA Director Michael Hayden called homegrown terrorism the more serious threat faced by American citizens today. The UK, likewise, considers homegrown terrorism to be a considerable threat. On June 6, 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron announced a wide-ranging strategy to prevent British citizens from being radicalized into becoming terrorists while at university. The strategy is intended to prevent extremist speakers or groups from coming to universities.
On July 23, 2019, Christopher A. Wray, the head of the FBI, said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the agency had made around 100 domestic terrorism arrests since October 1, 2018, and that the majority of them were connected in some way with white supremacy. Wray said that the Bureau was "aggressively pursuing using both counterterrorism resources and criminal investigative resources and partnering closely with our state and local partners," but said that it was focused on the violence itself and not on its ideological basis. A similar number of arrests had been made for instances of international terrorism. In the past, Wray has said that white supremacy was a significant and "pervasive" threat to the U.S.

Lone wolf terrorism

Domestic terrorism is often linked to lone wolf terrorism. Sociologist Ramón Spaaij defines lone wolf terrorism as an act of terrorism committed by one person who "acts on his or her own without orders from—or even connections to an organization". From the late 20th to the early 21st centuries, lone wolf terrorism in the United States has primarily been associated with white supremacy, Islamic fundamentalism, and anti-government extremists such as Dylann Roof, Robert Bowers, Wade Michael Page, Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph, Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., and Omar Mateen. Many lone wolves share a common trait in that they seek acceptance from other groups but are typically met with rejection.
In their 2007 book Hunting the American Terrorist former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Terry Turchie and former FBI special agent Kathleen Puckett described six criteria to define a lone wolf:
  1. The act of terrorism was organized by few or only one person that was not operating with an organized group
  2. The individual is willing to use lethal violence to achieve their goal
  3. Their primary goal is ideological, political, or religious in scope
  4. The individual is willing to accept full-scale collateral damage
  5. The individual is not intending to commit suicide, unless the situation calls for it
  6. The individual is intending to commit homicide to get their message public, or to use such acts as the message

    Radicalization

There is no one path toward violence. Homegrown terrorists have been high school dropouts, college graduates, members of the military, and cover the range of financial situations. Research published in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations in 2011 suggested that domestic terrorism in countries with majoritarian political systems may result from of a lack of opportunities for meaningful political engagement. Some domestic terrorists studied overseas and were exposed to radical Islamist thought, while others took their inspiration from the internet. An article published in the British Journal of Sociology suggests that discrimination against minorities, particularly in the form of residential segregation of Muslims in European countries such as England, France, and Germany, can contribute to radicalization of Muslims living in these countries.
Marc Sageman writes in his book, Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century that, contrary to popular belief, radicalization into terrorism is not the product of poverty, various forms of brainwashing, youth, ignorance, lack of education, lack of employment, lack of social responsibility, criminality, or mental illness. He says that intermediaries and English-speaking imams, such as the late Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who are often found through the internet on forums, provide key roles in the radicalization process. Social networks provided in forums support and build upon an individual's radical beliefs. Prison systems are also a concern as a place of radicalization and jihadist recruiting; nearly three dozen ex-convicts who attended training camps in Yemen were believed to have been radicalized in prison. The only constant appears to be "a newfound hatred for their native or adopted country, a degree of dangerous malleability, and a religious fervor justifying or legitimizing violence that impels these very impressionable and perhaps easily influenced individuals toward potentially lethal acts of violence," according to Peter Bergen and Bruce Hoffman's September 2010 paper for the Bipartisan Policy Center.