Slipsliding into Fascism

Law Enforcement Officials

Search for U.S.-Born Terrorists

Associated Press WorldStream
via NewsEdge Corporation

WASHINGTON_U.S-born terrorists - as well as potential ones - are stirring the government's interest.

Worried about American citizens attacking their own country, law enforcement and intelligence officials are trying to learn how and why extremist sympathizers cross a line and become operational terrorists.

Intelligence officials now fear that homegrowns pose as much of a threat to the U.S. as foreign terrorists. State and local police are being enlisted to watch for signs from people who in the past would have never gotten a second look.

"We want to understand the phenomena: What causes a person from being, say, extreme in views, to moving to actually committing violence?" said Charles E. Allen, chief intelligence officer at the Homeland Security Department.

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Word said the federal government also "needs to broaden the scope of what terrorism is and what homeland security is."

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