Threat of homegrown radicals ‘not taken seriously’

THE US was slow to take seriously the threat posed by homegrown radicals and the government has failed to put systems in place to deal with the growing phenomenon, according to a report compiled by the former heads of the 9/11 commission.

The report says US authorities failed to realise that Somali-American youths travelling from Minnesota to Mogadishu in 2008 to join extremists was not an isolated issue. Instead, it was among several instances of a broader, more diverse threat that has surfaced across the country.

“Our long-held belief that homegrown terrorism couldn’t happen here has thus created a situation where we are today stumbling blindly through the legal, operational and organisational minefield of countering terrorist radicalisation and recruitment occurring in the United States,” it said.