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American Homegrown Terrorists Are an Inferior Breed

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by Robert Emmett Murphy, Jr.

Literally thousands signed up for the Adam Kokesh armed march on Washington to abolish the U.S. government back in 1992 before it was canceled. 21 years later, the events unfolding right now in Gilberton, Pennsylvania, with suspended Chief of Police Mark Kessler are pretty frightening, at least from the outside. And many of us remember the days of disorder when right-wing militias and individuals with similar ideologies were responsible for a long string of bank robberies, assassinations, deadly stand-offs with police, and the Oklahoma City bombing (which still ranks as the second worst act of terrorism in American history). Yet the actual mayhem executed by right-wing extremists in the US seems relatively modest.

Why do you think that is?

My thoughts on the matter: The potential threat is real, and if we go back to the 1980s-1990s, we see that the potential has already been repeatedly realized. But that potential threat has real inhibitors standing in its way.

adamRight-wing-anti-government groups take pride in recruiting ex-military personnel, so they recruit from the extremely well-trained. They exist in the context of stable, sympathetic communities. They blend in with the general population, making both attack and escape easier. They are guilty of numerically more attacks against US targets than those committed by foreign-born actors and their anti-American ideologies. All these things are true. And yet, for the last 15 years or so, these American born and bred terrorist groups seem to accomplished very little. Their actions have been less effective, and have killed far fewer people, than terrorists who enter this country from abroad, or who, though born here, represent international ideologies.

I believe this is the result of improving Law Enforcement, and more importantly, due to a collective respect for the rule of law in this country. This combination has inhibited most homegrown terror networks from functioning long enough to develop an institutional memory. They don’t get the benefit of any type of meaningful learning curve. They just don’t last long enough to get good at terrorism.

adam3When a domestic terrorist goes to jail, we generally learn that the mastermind was also the one out there taking the biggest risks. Kokesh (already jailed) and Kessler (not yet charged although some of his antics leave him open to charges) would be examples of this. Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolf are also good examples. But in the failed and/or criminal states from other parts of the world, the international terror groups have all but supplanted local authority. They have security, money, and the capacity to engage in sophisticated training to execute more substantial acts. They are much more like American organized crime syndicates than their American terrorist counterparts; they can send out the cannon fodder to do their bidding while the mastermind sits comfortably at home.

adam4Look at the pictures of the shoe bomber; he’s an imbecile. And the underwear bomber was a lonely child who ran away from home. Neither built their devices. The skilled bomb maker’s relationship with the suicide bomber is akin to the drug kingpin’s relationship with a street-level dealer. Hafiz Saeed, accused of orchestrating the 2008 Mumbai attacks, continues to preach openly in public squares in Pakistan. Anwar al-Awlaki, accused of having directed the underwear bomber (among others), had to be taken out in a still controversial drone strike in Yemen because there was no option to capture him on that ground. This reality allows a small number of players to be responsible for most of the more spectacular foreign-directed attacks over an indefinite period of time.

Comparative numbers from reliable sources are somewhat scattered. I had to cobble these following points together from different sources:

  • Heritage Foundation found that between 2001 and 2009, domestic terrorists were committing about one act of terror per month.
  • FBI data indicates that from 2002 to 2005, 23 of the 24 recorded terrorist incidents were perpetrated by domestic terrorists.

adam7Though “domestic terrorist” cover a wide spectrum of political delusions, of the eight terrorist acts the FBI recorded in  2002, all but one were committed by Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). The right-wing extremist groups are considered the deadliest, and therefore most important. The FBI noted that eight of 14 recorded terrorism prevention actions were in response to right-wing extremism. Therefore, although ELF and ALF commit more acts, the right-wing groups are more likely to be thwarted because law enforcement watches them much more closely simply because they are known to be more murderous. Therefore, they get more attention, and they are apprehended far more often. You can find lots of acts by ELF, but you’d be hard pressed to find a deadly one.

So far this year, there have been more killings in the US committed by pre-adolescents playing with loaded guns than by terrorists of any ilk or persuasion.

I hope this doesn’t sound unpatriotic, but American terrorists are an inferior breed.

 

Click here to view other recent posts by Robert Emmett Murphy, Jr.:

Pennsylvania Police Chief Is an Armed Terrorist

Bestiality Is Legal in the Same States That Ban Same Sex Marriage

George Zimmerman Trial: Inadmissible Evidence Cuts Both Ways

Let the Police Do Their Work, Buddy: That Means You!

Why the Case Against George Zimmerman Is Strong Enough for a Conviction


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