The arrest last week of seven terrorism suspects in Miami underscores the need for vigilance against “homegrown jihadists,” said Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff.
In an interview with The Examiner, Chertoff said the Miami arrests are only the latest example of terrorists who are radicalized in Western nations. Earlier this month, police arrested terror suspects in Canada and England.
“We have to be mindful not only of the continuing, centrally directed al-Qaida plot ? where they?re sitting there over in Central Asia and planning an operation to carry out ? but also what I call virtual jihad,” Chertoff said.
“Those are people who can use the Internet to radicalize themselves, train themselves and don?t really have to have a live conversation with somebody in Central Asia or go to someplace in Central Asia for planning. They can do it in their backyard.”
Such domestic terrorists can learn how to build bombs and launch attacks against civilian targets merely by studying the right Web sites.
“And that?s a hard thing to penetrate, because the lower the signature of the communications and the more isolated the group is, the less chance that we?re going to be able to catch them using international methods,” Chertoff said.
That?s why Homeland Security continues to rely on local law enforcement authorities to help detect domestic terrorists, often with the help of local tipsters.
“Years ago, people made fun of the Department of Justice for encouraging people to come forward with tips about things they saw that were suspicious,” Chertoff said. “I have to tell you, though, that while most may turn out not to be anything, some proportion of those have actually been very useful in protecting against terrorism, not only here but overseas.”
Conversely, tips received overseas sometimes lead to the discovery of terrorists in America. The U.S. military recently recovered what it called a “treasure trove” of intelligence during a series of raids in Iraq that also netted scores of terror suspects.
“Taking out their leadership has had a very positive effect,” Chertoff said. “It gives us intelligence; it gives us clues. And often there are at least some threads that go back [to the U.S.] and by following those threads we can get the homegrown networks.”
Domestic terrorists, while cause for concern, are still not as grave a threat as their foreign counterparts when it comes to weapons of mass destruction.
“The homegrown groups are not at the point yet where they can fabricate a significant WMD device,” Chertoff said. “Remember, the most consequential threat remains al-Qaida. That is still where the threat is coming from, in terms of a large impact attack, particularly WMD.”
Consequently, Chertoff is relieved that the bulk of al-Qaida attacks against U.S. targets are in Iraq, not in America.
“It is better to fight them over there,” he said. “Taking the war to them overseas has dramatically increased our level of security.”
That?s because Iraq has become a magnet for Islamic terrorists worldwide.
“There?s a pool of people, not so much in this country at this point, but certainly in other parts of the world, including Europe, that have become radical jihadists,” Chertoff said. “And they are looking for a place to, for want of a better word, make their bones, as they used to say in organized crime.
“They used to go to Chechnya and they used to go to Bosnia, so they?re going to find a place to go. And frankly it?s better for them to find a place to go over there than over here.”
As the head of the massive Homeland Security Department, Chertoff is responsible for everything from stemming illegal immigration to responding to hurricanes. But when asked what keeps him awake at night, he answers without hesitation.
“I always worry most about a weapon of mass destruction,” he said. “I mean, I don?t think a major nuclear device is going to be exploded in this country in the next month or two months. It?s not that easy to create something like that.
“But over time, it?s going to get easier and easier to fabricate WMD,” he said. “To build the systems that are going to detect and to stop these things from coming in, we?re going to have to start that process now. We?re investing a lot of money in a domestic nuclear detection office.”
Chertoff acknowledged it will take years to perfect the technology.
“Ten years from now, my successor ought to be in a position where if there is a credible threat of a stolen nuclear weapon, that he can flip a switch and would have in place the technology to make sure it doesn?t come into this country,” he said. “And he can?t do that if I don?t build it now.”
