Most US ‘home-grown’ terrorists non-Muslims

The report opens with the claim: “The American export of terrorism or terrorist is not a recent phenomenon, nor has it been associated only with Islamic radicals or people of Middle Eastern, African or South Asian ethnic origin.”

Yet, a further examination of the specifics shows that it is indeed the terrorism by Muslims that take precedence. Of the four terrorist incidents cited, half directly involve Muslims. Five new Pakistani-American recruits to the Pakistani Taliban are mentioned, in addition to the David Headley case. The CIA reports that this Pakistani-American had “conducted surveillance in support of the Lashkar-i-Tayyiba attack in Mumbai, India, that killed more than 160 people.”

The one example of Jewish violence from the doctor and member of extremist group ‘Kach’, Baruch Goldstein, is seen also as a precursor to Muslim misdeeds. According to the memorandum, his attack on the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, in February 1994 during Ramadan when Palestinians were praying their morning prayers, killing 29 people, “helped to trigger a wave of bus bombings by Hamas in 1995.”

This leaves the report with only one instance of terrorism without Muslim connotations, the involvement of Irish-Americans in the IRA’s fight for independence from the UK.

Another complete sub-section of the report is dedicated almost solely to Al-Qa’ida – it is the only organisation to be mentioned by name. “Other extremist groups” are given only a passing reference; the focus here is on Al-Qa’ida’s efforts to involve Muslim-American supporters in their campaigns.

The official statement from the US Department of State emphasises the supposed level of danger posed by this organisation. They declare that “the greatest threat…come[s] from the al-Qaida network, which includes a core al-Qaida organization and numerous confederated extremist groups.”

However, many disagree with the level of threat this memorandum implies. A recent study from CNN (based on independent research from Duke University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill) proposed “the terrorist threat posed by radicalized Muslim-Americans has been exaggerated.” Professor of Sociology at UNC, Charles Kurzman, supports this with the statement that “…Muslim-American terrorism has resulted in fewer than three dozen of the 136,000 murders committed in the United States since 9/11.” According to the FBI’s official figures, a mere 6% of terrorist attacks on US soil between 1980 and 2005 have been the product of terrorism carried out by Muslims. Instead, it is Latino offences that are the most common at 42%, followed by those of extreme left wing groups (24%), others (16%), Jewish extremists (7%) and the Communists (5%).

Moreover, a CIA official spokesperson George Little has denied the report as having much significance. He justifies its shortcomings by presenting it as a product of the CIA’s Red Cell, a division designed after 9/11 to view issues unconventionally and, to some extent, theoretically. “These sorts of analytic products…are designed simply to provoke thought and present different points of view.”

This is not the first instance of WikiLeaks’ involvement in high profile affairs, indeed the website regularly publishes sensitive government material. In February 2009 it caused much controversy when it made public an internal NATO report regarding the war in Afghanistan.

This stated that the civilian death toll had risen 46% since the previous year. However, the official figure published by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan only added up to 40%.

Both this classified document and public records agreed that 80% of these civilian deaths were caused by what they termed as insurgents, a group which is for the most part made up of the Taliban.

Another more recent incident involving this website occurred in April 2010 when WikiLeaks, through the Freedom of Information Act, was able to release a video of events in Baghdad on July 12, 2007. An American air strike on the city killed a dozen civilians, including 2 children. The official explanation at the time claimed that anti-Iraqi forces and insurgents were the only casualties – WikiLeaks disproved this.

(Source: Muslim News, UK)