Glenn Greenwald: The Allegedly Growing Domestic Muslim Threat
There is clearly a concerted effort by the Government to claim loudly that the threat posed by radicalized American Muslims is increasing. Last week, The Los Angeles Times published a lengthy, scary story under the headline ”U.S. sees homegrown Muslim extremism as rising threat,” claiming that “Anti-terrorism officials and experts see signs of accelerated radicalization among American Muslims.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned this month: ”Home-based terrorism is here.” When justifying his Afghanistan escalation at West Point, Obama warned of “extremists within our borders who were sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror.” And strangely, on Saturday, two articles with virtually identical storylines appeared — one in The Washington Post and the other in The New York Times — warning that American Muslims, for the first time, are now becoming a radicalized threat in the way European Muslims are.
At least from all appearances, these claims are being made exclusively on the basis of a handful of recent episodes involving American Muslims accused of having links to Al Qaeda and/or the Taliban. There is no data whatsoever offered to corroborate the claim of a “trend.” Given the obvious dangers inherent in trumpeting threats from internal sources — as well as the motives the Government generally has in disseminating such warnings and the motive it specifically has when escalating a war — far more than a few anecdotes ought to be required before any of this is believed. [more...]