The United States needs to refocus its efforts on extremists born and raised in American communities following a spurt in cases of arrest of "home grown terrorists", a leading think-tank has warned.

The Government should do more to combat the notion that America is at war with Islam, and to improve cooperation with local law enforcement, said the report released by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

The report 'A Growing Terrorist Threat? Assessing Homegrown Extremism in the United States' notes that facing comparatively few restrictions, US residents and citizens can travel abroad, connect with terrorist groups to gain explosives or weapons training, and return here to plan and execute attacks.

Referring to some of the high-profile arrests in 2009 including that of Najibullah Zazi, David Coleman Headley and Nidal Malik Hasan, the report said, this rash of arrests has important implications for policymakers and officials in charge of counter-terrorism and homeland security because US legal residents and citizens are lucrative assets for global terrorist organisations.

"Particularly troubling are homegrown extremists who possess facility with both American and foreign cultures, including language skills. Such multicultural familiarity could allow them to operate freely both at home and overseas and to elude far more easily than foreign nationals," it said.

The Obama administration must give special consideration to how homegrown extremism fits within the United States' larger strategic framework for dealing with global terrorism.

"As a basic matter, officials should dispel any and all notions that US military involvement in Muslim countries constitutes some kind of anti-Islam agenda," the report said.

"Longer term, the White House must consider ways to shift the US approach to counterterrorism away from large-scale and overt intervention and toward partnerships with countries plagued by extremist violence," it said.

Date : 11/03/2010. News by Newsofap.com