More Home-Grown Terror Attacks to Come?

May 10, 2007 — -- A Senate panel held a hearing today on violent Islamist extremism and government efforts to defeat it -- a topic Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) called "painfully timely."

The hearing came just two days after six Muslim men from New Jersey and Philadelphia were charged with plotting to attack Fort Dix and its soldiers. Three were legal residents.

"Osama bin Laden's radical message reached across cyberspace and traditional borders and poisoned the hearts and minds of these six men," said Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, in his opening statement.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) added, "The New Jersey conspirators serve as a chilling reminder that no matter how secure we make our borders, no matter how effectively we track foreign terrorist groups, America remains exposed to the threat of homegrown terrorism."

The hearing continued with senators questioning witnesses on how the government is making sure that the United States is safe and where our relations stand with the international Muslim community.

Jeremy Curtin, coordinator of the State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs, was the first witness.

Curtin said the mission of the IIP is to counter violent extremist ideology overseas. He pointed out two major ways that this is happening.

The first way is through what is called "citizen dialogues" -- the IIP sends teams of American Muslims abroad to have talks and engage in foreign Muslim communities.

The other tactic is to use the Internet. Curtin said that the IIP now has a major presence in Arabic cyberspace to counter extremist messages. However, he cautioned that the work of IIP and its Counterterrorism Communication Center "depend heavily on the 2007 emergency supplemental."

In fact, the newly operational communication center has only three employees right now.

Besides Curtin, the other person to sustain most of the questioning was John Miller, assistant director of FBI Public Affairs.