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Top 4 threats against America: the good and bad news

America’s top spy chiefs and intelligence experts come together every year to share their best guesses about the biggest threats that will face the country in the year ahead. Here are the top four pieces of good and bad news to come out of the annual threat-assessment hearing in Congress Tuesday.

8. Domestic extremists: bad news

Elizabeth Williams/AP/File
This courtroom sketch shows defendant Najibullah Zazi (r.) inside federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York in 2010. The former Denver airport shuttle said he was recruited by Al Qaeda in Pakistan.

  • By Anna Mulrine Staff writer

A handful of homegrown terrorists “have exhibited improved tradecraft and operational security and increased willingness to consider less sophisticated attacks, which suggests the HVE threat may be evolving.” 

During most of the past decade, most HVEs “did not have the technical capability to match their aspirations.” But in 2009, US-born “extremists” who were trained overseas attempted “two mass-casualty explosive attacks” on US soil. 

As a result, intelligence officials “remain alert to potential dynamics” that could galvanize HVEs.  

These include “a series of events perceived to reflect an anti-Islamic bias,” US military involvement in another Muslim country, and increased “HVE use of the Internet to share propaganda, form social or peer networks, or recruit others for attack planning.” 

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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