Obama admin ignoring domestic Islamist terror threat?

Gertz:

The Obama administration has failed to fully understand the homegrown terrorism threat posed by Islamist extremists, notably by mischaracterizing the terror attack carried out by a Muslim U.S. Army major, according to a new Republican House report.

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The report, released on Dec. 7, was prepared by Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee. It criticized the administration for not recognizing the Islamist nature of Maj. Nidal Hasan’s attack at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009 and an attack at an Army recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas earlier that same year.

In the Fort Hood attack Maj. Nidal Hasan murdered 13 people and injured an additional 32. Earlier that year at a Little Rock Army Recruiting Center, Army Private William Long was fatally shot by homegrown Islamist terrorist Carlos Bledsoe, who calls himself Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad.

The Obama administration classified the Fort Hood attack as “workplace violence” and the murder of Long was listed in state court as a criminal offense and not a terrorist act.

“Both incidents also demonstrate the contradiction of the Obama administration regarding homegrown terrorism: The administration has steadfastly refused to say these cases are evidence of violent Islamist extremism,” the report said.

In several bulletins to federal, state and local law enforcement and security agencies since May 1, the Fort Hood and Little Rock tragedies were referred to as examples of homegrown violent extremism by lone offenders targeting the U.S. military, who might launch retaliatory attacks for Bin Laden’s death.

However, the bulletins did not use the word “Islamist” in describing those behind the general threats and failed to recognize that homegrown violent extremists are motivated by Islamist extremism, the report maintains.

“The heroic soldiers killed and wounded in the Little Rock and Fort Hood shootings have not received Purple Heart medals, despite pleas by their survivors that their loved ones fell in the line of duty in the war on terror,” the report said.

The report, “Homegrown Terrorism: The Threat to Military Communities Inside the United States,” is available at: http://homeland.house.gov/hearing/joint-hearing-homegrown-terrorism-threat-military-communities-inside-united-states .

“The Department of Defense considers the U.S. homeland the most dangerous place for a G.I. outside of foreign warzones, and the top threat they face here is from violent Islamist extremists,” the report said.

“While our troops at overseas bases train their weapons outward to prevent armed enemies from getting inside the wire,’ one way militant Islamists are penetrating our defenses is through enlistment in the U.S. Armed Forces,” it said.

Other major attacks perpetrated by insiders include the 2003 attack at Kuwait Camp Pennsylvania by Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar, who used grenades to kill and wound fellow soldiers in 2003, and Army Pvt. Naser Abdo, also accused of a subsequent terror plot at Fort Hood.

The report said more than 33 cases have involved terrorists operating inside the United States or the U.S. military. A total of 23 incidents occurred in the past 30 months in what the report called a “surge” in homegrown Islamist terror.

“Radicalized insiders who have access to training and weapons erode trust and morale within the ranks because they have unfettered access to their intended targets,” the report said.

The report said that there are likely far more radicalized Muslims in the military than has been publicly acknowledged.

“These cases represent the leading edge of Al Qaida’s ongoing effort to infiltrate the U.S. military and to recruit or radicalize vulnerable servicemen to commit future acts of terror,” the report said.