Terrorists Groups attract young Americans for Jihadist Fighting

Many analysts and subject matter experts on terrorism and terror related activities have sounded whistles and bells regarding the recruiting of disenfranchised young American men into Jihadist Movements and organizations. At present there is absolutely no doubting that the warnings have been proven correct. With the recent guilty pleas by three American young men on terror related charges and even more recently discovered internet-based recruitment activities aimed at English speaking American men the threat of "home grown" terrorists and terrorist acts has increased a hundred fold in less than six months.
As was stated in an earlier article regarding the Five Elements of a Terrorist Attack, terrorist leaders are not stupid by any stretch of the imagination. They are highly intelligent, analytical, and quite deliberate in their planning and actions. For some time it has been rather easy to detect and detain terrorist operatives in that they were virtually always foreign. The indicator factors through communications taps and informants, along with the occasional documents seized in raids elsewhere, often pointed the general direction of the enemy out and then it was a matter of looking for the loner group of mostly Middle Eastern origined people.
In the law enforcement and civil rights circles such was known as "profiling." The civil rights people declared it inaccurate and discriminatory and the law enforcement and intelligence communities first declared it accurate and useful then denied using it altogether (even though they did and do) in order to avoid bad liberal press and frivolous lawsuits. The reality is that it is a little of what both sides call it. Profiling is discriminatory, is based on behavioral characteristics indigenous to certain types of criminals, is very useful in detecting the bad guys, and has been very accurate even though liberal activists insist that it wasn’t. However, with the morphing of attention by terror groups towards indigenous American young men profiling is definitely becoming obsolete in regards to accuracy.
Just ten years ago a hardly noticeable rag-tag outfit of radical Islamists in Mogadishu, Somalia called the al-Shabab was running around the streets engaging in a number of violent activities under the flag of radical Islam. In fact, it would have been looked at more as a gang than a serious Jihadist Organization. In the mid to late 1990’s Al-Shabab had an estimated membership of less than twelve people who were poorly disciplined, poorly organized, barely funded, and grossly under equipped to wage any form of serious Jihad. But, somehow al-Shabab has exploded in membership, money, and equipment. The caliber, skill, and discipline of its members have also improved greatly.
The explosion in size, skill, personnel, activities, funding, and materials of al-Shabab can be easily traced to the involvement of an Iranian military outfit known as the "Quds Force." Their involvement and enhancement of the Somalia-based terror group is no surprise at all. In fact, it is expected given Iran’s declared international goals and the primary mission of the Quds Force. It is the means of recruiting and the geographic origin of the recruits that has stirred surprise and tremendous worry in the minds or American National Security experts...more..http://www.examiner.com/x-21184-Homeland-Security-Examiner~y2009m8d26-Terrorists-Groups-attract-young-Americans-for-Jihadist-Fighting