Katrina fall-out

Matt Whiting wrote:
How is that clear? Some experts think quite the opposite is the case.

This from this mornings paper...

Case shows threat of homegrown terrorism
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Jeremiah Marquez
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — An alleged plot targeting military facilities, synagogues
and other sites in the Los Angeles area has highlighted what experts say
is a novel terrorist threat: homegrown American militants operating with
little or no help from Islamic extremists abroad.

Four suspects were charged Wednesday with conspiring to wage war against
the U.S. government through terrorism. Named in the federal indictment
were Levar Haley Washington, 25; Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21; Hammad
Riaz Samana, 21; and Kevin James, 29.

All but Samana, a Pakistani national, are American-born Muslim converts.
Counterterrorism officials have found no evidence directly connecting
the group — described as the cell of a California prison gang of radical
Muslims — to al-Qaida or other foreign terror networks.

Law-enforcement officials and terrorism experts said it could represent
one of the first Islamic terrorism cases involving U.S. natives without
such connections.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack, an international dragnet has
broken up training camps, disrupted finances and sent terrorist leaders
underground, making it more difficult for al-Qaida to mount attacks.

Yet despite tougher border control, a radical ideology shared by the
terrorist network seeps into the United States through propaganda
distributed via the Internet, books, pamphlets, DVDs and the media — a
"passive recruiting strategy," terrorism experts say.

That’s helped transform al-Qaida into a movement with disciples acting
without funding, expertise or guidance from foreign advisers.

"Al-Qaida can’t get their militants to the places they want to hit, so
they rely on an ideology to gain converts who do it for them," said
Professor Brian Levin, a terrorism researcher at California State
University, San Bernardino.

In the California case, prosecutors say cell members largely supported
themselves.

Washington, Patterson and Samana allegedly robbed gas stations to
finance their plans to target military sites, synagogues, the Israeli
Consulate and the El Al airport counter in the Los Angeles area.
Patterson bought a .223 caliber rifle. Samana underwent "firearms
training and physical training" at a local park, the indictment says.

They even conducted Internet research on potential targets and Jewish
holidays — dates they allegedly planned the assaults to "maximize the
number of casualties," prosecutors said.

Samana’s lawyer, Timothy Lannen, described his client in a statement as
a "peace-loving, law-abiding member of our community" and said "he did
not intend at any time to commit violence against anyone."

An attorney in Washington’s robbery case had not reviewed the federal
indictment and had no immediate comment. Patterson’s lawyer has said his
client asked him not to comment.

The plot’s suspected mastermind was James, a state prison inmate who
founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, authorities said.
Washington converted to Islam while imprisoned there for a previous
robbery conviction.

Self-made groups are smaller and have fewer financial resources, and
that, said former counterterrorism chief Buck Revell, means "they may be
successful because they’re extremely hard to detect."