While we in America are quick to point out the dangerous religious fanatics in other places around the globe, we cannot overlook that we have some of our own.
The Christian Identity movement, including Aryan Nations, has the same hatred towards liberalism, democracy and plurality as does the Taliban.
While these groups may be relatively small, they are violent. I worry that they may use the current national mood of near-panic to both recruit among fearful Americans and to instigate further terror. I would not be surprised if we find that the Anthrax mailings come from this domestic source of terror.
While we are focused on the terrorists from “over there”, I hope we don’t forget the ones that are here. Is there any way to protect ourselves from home-grown terror?
The only one of these groups that could possibly qualify as a terrorist group, under the DOD’s definition, would be the KKK, and that would be only if you counted the lynching of blacks as some kind of “political” action, and if you could figure out who the audience was that the “political act” of lynching a black was intended to influence.
These are just hate groups. They’re not terrorists. To paraphrase, “terrorism is something you do.” These hate groups just sit home and run their Internet sites, and then go out and have meetings. But they don’t blow up dams or train stations or fly jets into the World Trade Center.