On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security renewed its standing warning against homegrown terrorism, adding details about new threats that were not covered in the previous iteration and warning that America faces “one of the most serious terror threat environments since the 9/11 attacks.”
This is the fourth time the DHS has renewed the 2015 bulletin. The new edition includes advisories about the low-tech attack methods favored in recent terror attacks in Europe and America:
Terrorist groups are urging recruits to adopt easy-to-use tools to target public places and events. Specific attack tactics have included the use of vehicle ramming, small arms, straight-edged blades or knives, and homemade explosives, as well as other acts such as taking hostages.
The new revision of the bulletin also warns about foreign terrorists “attempting to travel to the United States on visas, from visa-waiver countries, with the aim of attacking the homeland or inciting others within our borders to conduct attacks.”
DHS warns that some of these individuals “have acquired training and battle-tested terrorism experience” and may be fleeing from “terrorist-controlled territories,” which sounds like a warning about Islamic State fighters seeking to infiltrate the United States or their home countries in Europe as ISIS loses territory in Syria and Iraq.
The Department of Homeland Security promises to use “enhanced screening and vetting measures to detect travelers with potential terrorist connections.”
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly stated that “we are in a generational fight against terrorist groups and those they inspire, and for us to protect our homeland we will need constant vigilance and clear focus on staying a step ahead of the enemy.”
“There’s very few people that actually get radicalized,” Kelly told a University of Chicago audience on Tuesday. “As an American society, we have families, we have friends, we have churches, we have mosques and synagogues, we have community this and that, we have police and all, we have a great country – problems for sure, but we have a great country. And all of that works to keep people from becoming a white supremacist or radicalized or something like that.”
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats also issued a warning about the “frequent and unpredictable” threat of “homegrown extremists” recently.
“Homegrown extremists remain the most frequent and unpredictable terrorist threat to the United States homeland. This threat will persist with many attacks happening with little or no warning,” the DNI’s office reported last week. “Outside Iraq and Syria, ISIS seeks to foster interconnectedness among its global branches and networks, align their efforts to ISIS’ strategy and withstand counter-ISIS efforts. We assess that ISIS maintains the capability to direct, enable, assist and inspire transnational attacks.”
ODNI issued a warning similar to Homeland Security’s bulletin about the “very likely” possibility that jihadis will “look for new battlefields or return to their home countries to conduct or support external operations.”