Homegrown terrorists called serious threat

NEW YORK, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A New York Police Department report warns that homegrown terrorists can pose more of a threat to U.S. security than al-Qaida.

U.S. citizens with no criminal records or "clean skins" are often recruited by radicals because they can operate under the radar of law enforcement, thus making them more dangerous than known terror suspects from abroad, The Washington Times said Thursday.

Homegrown terrorists are meeting up at cafes, cab stands, prisons, student associations, butcher shops and bookstores, as well as mosques.

"The Internet, with its thousands of extremist Web sites and chat-rooms, is a virtual incubator of its own. In fact, many of the extremists began their radical conversion while researching or just surfing in the cyber-world," the report said.

People recruited for radicalization often look like "ordinary citizens."

"In the United Kingdom, it is precisely those 'ordinary' middle class university students who are sought after by local extremists” the document said. "Most have never been arrested or involved in any kind of legal trouble."

The challenge for law enforcement is how to identify and quash recruitment and the process of radicalization, The Times noted.