Homegrown extremists pose big threat to US: FBI

Observing that Al Qaeda and its affiliates are still committed to striking the United States, a top American intelligence official has told US lawmakers that lone-wolf and homegrown extremist now poses an equally serious threat to the country.

Appearing before a Congressional committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller told lawmakers that unlike in the past, US-born extremists are being trained to strike overseas as reflected in the arrest of the David Coleman Headley, who played a crucial role in the Mumbai terrorist strike that killed more than 180 people including six American nationals.

"Al Qaeda and its affiliates are still committed to striking us in the United States. We saw this with the plot by an al-Qaeda operative to detonate explosives on the subways in New York City and the attempted airline bombing on Christmas Day," Muller said in his testimony.

These incidents involve improvised explosive devices or IEDs and underscore the importance of our Terrorist Device Explosive Center, also known as TEDAC. TEDAC does more than support our military overseas. It also provides crucial intelligence in our fight against Al Qaeda, he said.

"Homegrown and lone-wolf extremists pose an equally serious threat. We saw this with the Fort Hood shootings, the attempted bombings of an office tower in Dallas and a federal building in Springfield, Illinois, and the violent plans hatched by the Hutaree militia in Michigan," he said.

"We have also seen US-born extremists plotting to commit terrorism overseas as was the case with the heavily-armed Boyd conspiracy in North Carolina and David Headley's involvement in the Mumbai attacks," Mueller said.

"These terrorist threats are diverse, far-reaching and ever- changing. And to combat these threats, the FBI must sustain our overseas contingency operations and engage our intelligence and law enforcement partners both here at home and abroad," he said.

That is why, for fiscal year 2011, the FBI has requested funds for 90 new national security positions and $25 million to enhance its national security efforts, he said.

The FBI has requested, approximately $8.3 billion to fund more than 33,000 FBI agents, analysts and staff and to build and maintain its infrastructure.

"This funding is critical to carry out our mission of protecting the nation from the ever-changing national security  and criminal threats," Mueller said.