"Mueller said that terror groups could use homegrown radicals, rather than foreign terrorists, to infiltrate the country. He noted that there are "pockets of people around the world that identify with al-Qaida and its ideology" but act independently of its leadership."
FBI Director Warns of Mumbai-Style Attacks in U.S.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III issued a new warning Monday that terrorists are prepared to conduct Mumbai-style attacks on U.S. soil.
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In a speech before the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., Mueller said that small terror networks "with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons to maximize their impact."
The FBI director then added ominously: "And it again raises the question of whether a similar attack could happen in Seattle or San Diego, Miami, or Manhattan."
Mueller said that terror groups could use homegrown radicals, rather than foreign terrorists, to infiltrate the country. He noted that there are "pockets of people around the world that identify with al-Qaida and its ideology" but act independently of its leadership.
He revealed that a 27-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, Shirwa Ahmed, engaged in a suicide bombing in Somalia last year.
"A man from Minneapolis became what we believe to be the first U.S. citizen to carry out a terrorist suicide bombing," Mueller said.
"The attack occurred last October in northern Somalia, but it appears that this individual was radicalized in his hometown in Minnesota," Mueller added. Authorities have said as many as 20 young Somali men reported missing in Minnesota may have returned to Somalia to take up arms.
Mueller warned that events in far-off places around the globe could have repercussions at home.
"World politics often shape terrorist and criminal threats against the United States," he said. "A crisis in the Horn of Africa may well have a ripple effect in Minneapolis."
