US to focus on homegrown extremists
The US president’s new national security strategy will focus on the threat posed by homegrown extremists, his counter-terrorism chief says.
Barack Obama will also de-emphasise the “war on terror” concept favoured by his predecessor, George Bush, and make clear that the US is not at war with Islam when he releases the strategy on Thursday, said John Brennan, the deputy national security adviser for counter-terrorism and homeland security.
Following a spate of attacks or near misses – at the Fort Hood military base last year and in New York’s Times Square this month – the Obama administration appears to have reframed the matrix of threats to US national security.
“We’ve seen an increasing number of individuals here in the United States become captivated by extremist activities or causes,” Brennan said at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies on Wednesday.
‘Armed with US passport’
“The president’s national security strategy explicitly recognises the threat to the United States posed by individuals radicalised here at home.
“We’ve seen individuals, including US citizens, armed with their US passport, travel easily to terrorist safe havens and return to America, their deadly plans disrupted by coordinated intelligence and law enforcement.”
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