Homegrown Extremism 2001-2013
This is a follow-up to last year’s Page, Homegrown Terrorism Cases, 2001-2012. The New America Foundation appears to have a new site—at least new to me—for their National Security Studies Program with a section dedicated to analyzing homegrown extremism. They list nine major plots in 2013 (individual’s names link to their profiles):
- 2013 Wichita Airport Bomb Plot
Terry Loewen (Jihadist, U.S. Born Citizen, Caucasian) - 2013 Weapons Purchase
Erwin Rios (Jihadist, U.S. Born Citizen, Ethnicity/Race Unknown) - 2013 Nabi and Alsarabbi
Humayoun Ghoulan Nabi (Jihadist, Citizenship Unknown/Other, South Asian)
Ismail Alsarabbi (Jihadist, Naturalized Citizen, Arab/Middle Eastern) - 2013 Kaliebe and Zea
Marco Alonso Zea (Jihadist, U.S. Born Citizen, Hispanic)
Justin Kaliebe (Jihadist, U.S. Born Citizen, Caucasian) - 2013 Fazliddin Kurbanov
Fazliddin Kurbanov (Jihadist, Citizenship Unknown/Other, Uzbek) - 2013 Eric Harroun
Eric Harroun (Jihadist, U.S. Born Citizen, Caucasian) - 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing
Dzhokhar Tsernaev (Jihadist, Naturalized Citizen, Chechen)
Tamerlan Tsernaev (Jihadist, Legal Resident, Chechen) - 2013 Basit Sheikh
Basit Sheikh (Jihadist, Legal Resident, South Asian) - 2013 Abdella Tounisi
Abdella Tounisi (Jihadist, U.S. Born Citizen, Ethnicity/Race Unknown)
As of January 2014 the Homegrown Terrorism Tallies since (but not including) September 11, 2001 are as follows:
- Total extremists: 403
- Jihadists: 226
- Non-jihadists: 177
- Victims killed by Jihadists: 23
- Victims killed by non-Jihadists: 29
The purpose of this database is to provide as much information as possible about American citizens and permanent residents engaged in violent extremist activity as well as individuals, regardless of their citizenship status, living within the United States who have engaged in violent extremist activity. We examine both those individuals motivated by Jihadist ideology, understood as those who worked with or were inspired by al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups, as well as those motivated by other ideologies that are non-Jihadist in character, for example right wing, left wing, or idiosyncratic beliefs. Here we provide some of the core findings including the number of extremists indicted or killed by year, the overall number of extremists indicted or killed since 2001, and the number of people killed by extremists since 2001. This data was last updated in December 2013.
Note: Information is now also provided on terror plots “in which the initiating or key role was played by the bulk collection of American telephone metadata by the NSA” as well as a page that asks the question: Do NSA’s Bulk Surveillance Programs Stop Terrorism? A detailed description and full copy of the report that attempts to answer the question can be found here. I tried to link directly to the PDF, however it appears that something in the file name (spaces maybe) prevent it from embedding properly.
Additionally, there is information & analysis on what are referred to as “drone wars” in Pakistan and Yemen.
Last, but not least, you might be interested in the following report, Jihadist Terrorism: An Assessment Report, by the Bipartisan Policy Center.1 Again, I had no success linking directly to the PDF to embed it, so instead I’ve linked it to the thumbnail in the description below:
The New America Foundation National Security Studies Program dataset of homegrown extremists seeks to provide as much information as possible about American citizens and permanent residents engaged in violent extremist activity as well as individuals, regardless of their citizenship status, living within the United States who have engaged in violent extremist activity.
The dataset has been widely cited. Most recently it formed the basis for the Bipartisan Policy Center’s 2013 report Jihadist Terrorism: A Threat Assesment‘s examination of homegrown extremism, a follow up to a 2010 assessment that used an earlier version of the dataset.
The dataset was originally a collaboration between the New America Foundation’s National Security Studies Program and Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. It underwent a full review, update, and expansion in 2013. The review was undertaken by Jennifer Rowland, a Program Associate with the New America Foundation, and David Sterman, a Master’s Candidate at Georgetown’s Center for Security Studies, working together with Peter Bergen.
1. I only briefly skimmed the report and I don’t know anything about the Bipartisan Policy Center beyond what I read on their Wiki page. None of the names jumped out at me as being raving wingnuts, though I know Frist, Lott, and Thompson are sort of borderline, so if it would be better not to trust something from an organization those guys are involved in, please let me know. Hopefully the other members neutralize anything negative about them.