Study Shows What Makes a Home-Grown Terrorist

The Dec. 8 arrest of Antonio Martinez in Catonsville was among the latest of about 80 "preventions" conducted by the FBI since 2001–investigations and sting operations targeting people whom authorities believe have a propensity for domestic terrorism, according to political sociologist Christopher Hewitt of the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Potential "lone wolf" terrorists usually lack the skills and resources to pull off an attack on their own, Hewitt said,  and in many cases would not have progressed from talk to planning without the intervention of the FBI.

On the other hand, Timothy McVeigh, Robert Rudolph and Ted Kaczynski are examples of the deadly havoc one person can create.

Hewitt studied alleged home-grown terrorists arrested in FBI preventions for his forthcoming book, Catching Terrorists: the American Experience, being released by ABC-CLIO in 2011. He has studied 3,000 terrorist incidents within the United States from 1954 to 2004 and his previous books include Understanding Terrorism in America and Political Violence and Terrorism in Modern America.

His analysis reveals some common characteristics of domestic terrorists. For example, all of those arrested in FBI preventions have been men. They also tend to be young.

During the first half of the last decade, eight of the FBI's 16 preventions were of "rightists," which Hewitt describes as "a vague term comprising Klansmen, militia members and tax protesters." Six of the preventions during the first half of the decade were of Islamists. The other two were an anarchist and a Jew who wanted to blow up a mosque, according to Hewitt.

During the second half of the decade, from 2006 to 2010, 12 of 13 preventions were of Islamists, with one case involving a militia group.

When religion was a motivation, Hewitt said about a quarter of those charged with domestic terrorism in FBI preventions were recent converts–as reportedly was Martinez.

In many cases, the subject of the investigation would have been unable to execute an attack without the FBI's assistance, Hewitt said.

Martinez, according to federal charges, tried but was unable to recruit others to help with his plans. He was unable to obtain weapons on his own, and did not know how to detonate a bomb, according to the agency.

"Lone wolves usually don't have the expertise to pull off an incident," Hewitt says. "It's not easy to make a bomb. If you want to be a terrorist, it really helps to be part of an organization."

Timothy McVeigh is "the poster boy for home-grown terrorism," Hewitt said of the man convicted and executed for the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing that killed 168 people. "He's the example of what one person can do."

Hewitt said, however, that McVeigh is an atypical example of a lone wolf domestic terrorist. McVeigh had been trained by the military, had spent time with militia groups and had assistance in the construction of an improvised explosive device.

In his research of those arrested in FBI preventions, Hewitt found that in many cases, the threats of domestic terrorism were mostly bluster.

"In at least half of the cases, most of it was talk rather than something serious," he said.

Many times, the plans being contemplated were wildly unrealistic, such as attacking the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch or plotting to take over a military base with a handful of armed civilians. The charges against Martinez said he schemed to attack Andrews Air Force Base with a tanker truck full of fuel.

"You can argue that some of these people are dangerous and will do something," Hewitt said. "Sometimes it's just talk."

With the advent of social networking sites such as Facebook, it is fairly easy for would-be domestic terrorists to find like-minded people around the world. The FBI said that radical Islamic videos and comments that Martinez posted on Facebook were what brought him to the bureau's attention.  Authorities posing as terrorists made contact with Martinez, who was apprehended while attempting to blow up a dummy bomb, according to federal charges.

The biggest concern, Hewitt said, is that someone itching to engage in an act of domestic violence can be contacted and recruited by a foreign organization that can provide expertise, training, money and other resources to execute an attack.

"The issue is whether these lone wolves can contact an organization that can train them and show them what to do," Hewitt said.

If the FBI could do it, so could al Qaida.

"The bottom line is, with these guys you never know," he added. "This guy was ultimately willing to go through with it."