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Sign In. Java. Script is required. This web browser does not support Java. Script or Java. Script in this web browser is not enabled. To find out if your web browser supports Java. Script or to enable Java. Script, see web browser help. LLQP Life License Qualification Program is part of the Canada licensing regime for life insurance sales people. Before an advisor in the financial services sector. EDIE Online Calculator. Online tool that helps how the insurance rules and limits apply to a depositors specific group of deposit accountswhats insured and what. Who Are Americas Homegrown Terrorists NPRTERRY GROSS, HOST This is FRESH AIR. Im Terry Gross. A lot of what you think you know about homegrown jihadists in America may be wrong. My guest, Peter Bergen, has been reporting on jihadists who were born in the U. S. or grew up here and how they were radicalized. Hes compiled a database of people in the U. S. who have been charged with a jihadist crime to help understand how they were radicalized and how they might have been stopped. Hes written a new book called United States Of Jihad. It traces the history of how militant Islamic groups came to recruit lone wolfs in the U. S. Bergen describes how the Internet and social media have been used to radicalize and recruit Americans and how some Americans became innovators in the jihadi use of digital media. Bergen is CNNs national security analyst and is the author of four previous books about terrorism. Hes also vice president of New America. In 1. 99. 7, working as a producer for CNN, Bergen produced bin Ladens first TV interview in which he declared war against the U. S. A documentary called Homegrown, based on Bergens new book, will debut on HBO next Monday. Peter Bergen, welcome back to FRESH AIR. PETER BERGEN Thank you. GROSS Lets start with an interesting comparison. Compare the number of deaths in the U. S. by a militant Muslim terrorist with the number of deaths by right wing extremists. BERGEN Well, since 91. I work at, New America, weve been compiling deaths caused by jihadi terrorists. And at a certain point, we started thinking, hey, why dont we also there are anti government fanatics whove also killed people and violent neo Nazis. And so since 91. United States by jihadi terrorists while 4. Nazi, anti government fanaticism. GROSS And compare the amount of investigative power that we have on each of those. BERGEN Well, I will say I think that the FBI is fairly concerned about the issue of anti government violence. Its hard to make a direct comparison, but I know that the Department of Justice, for instance, has recently appointed a sort of additional senior official to really examine this problem because, you know, whether its the attack in Charleston where the perpetrator wanted to start a race war or whether its the standoff that we saw in Oregon, there are other forms of political violence than jihadi terrorism in the United States. GROSS But on the whole, Americans are much more preoccupied with jihadi terrorism on American soil, even though the number of deaths since 91. BERGEN Yeah, I mean and some of that isnt surprising. I mean, 91. 1 was a sort of hinge event in American history, and all jihadi terrorist plots or attacks are kind of filtered through that lens. But the fact is is that, you know, we had a neo Nazi shout hail Hitler after he killed three people in Kansas City at a community center in 2. If he shouted, Allah akbar, what was already a pretty big news story wouldve become an even bigger news story, Im sure. So, you know, thats just kind of just the environment we live in. GROSS Lets look at another comparison, the number of Islamic extremists who have attacked Americans on American soil, the number who come from other countries and have come here for the attacks versus the number of attackers who are American born or are American citizens and grew up here. BERGEN You know whats interesting, since 91. United States must be conducted by foreigners because on 91. Arab hijackers recruited by al Qaida. In fact, every lethal terrorist attack in the United States since 91. Fort Hood or Boston or San Bernardino, has been conducted by American citizens or legal permanent residents. And so some of the hysteria about refugees coming into the country and performing acts of terrorism is very overblown. Certainly about 1. And but really, if you were concerned about lethal attacks, its been American citizens or American residents. GROSS Now why are these two comparisons that weve discussed important in understanding and addressing the larger problem of Islamic extremism in the U. S. BERGEN Well, I think some of what weve been discussing, Terry, is sort of is obviously is good news. I mean, if wed had this conversation in 2. Osama bin Ladens ideology, that wouldve seemed like a wildly optimistic claim. And of course, every one of these deaths is a tragedy, but they arent national catastrophes on the scale of 91. Paris where 1. 30 people were killed by who had been trained by ISIS and Syria. So I mean, you know, I think terrorism isnt only about numbers because, of course, people react to terrorists, and we dont our fears are not entirely rational. Were walking around with the same brain that we walked around the jungle in, you know, with 2. But, you know, that said, if you bring some rationality to the problem, terrorism is really a relatively minor issue, and weve done the United States government has done a pretty good job of keeping us safe through their whole variety of measures. I just to give you one example, you know, on 91. Today, there are 4. United States, youd be put into the first secondary screening because you are deemed to have some kind of even relatively small association with a potential association with a terrorist group. Zia Un Nabi English Pdf. So, you know, I think the good news is that weve really managed the threat, we, the United States. And also the American Muslim community is a largely pretty well integrated in a way that is not the case in Europe. If you look at the perpetrators of the Paris attacks in November or you look at the Charlie Hebdo attack, I mean, these people who perpetrated these attacks grew up in these rather grim unintelligible suburbs, which are like the projects, the French projects. They are many of them serve time in French prisons. One of the most astonishing statistics is less than 1. French population is Muslim, yet almost as much as 7. Muslim. So were looking at a very different problem here in the United States than youre looking at in Europe. GROSS OK, so knowing what you know and having access to this data bank that you created on jihadis in the U. S., what are your impressions of the rhetoric weve been hearing about terrorism and about Muslims coming to America in this presidential campaignBERGEN Well, the rhetoric is massively overblown, which is hardly surprising since its a presidential campaign season. And the two, you know and its interesting. If you look at the data, Terry, on what are the main issues that the electorate is interested in in December, polling suggested that 2. Republicans thought that terrorism was the number one issue facing the nation. Only 9 percent of Democrats felt the same way. But certainly, if you look at also polling data about fears and worries, about terrorism, you find that, you know, very large numbers of Americans are concerned about the possibility of another terrorist attack. So, you know, even if those fears are fundamentally, I think, somewhat irrational, I mean, obviously, there will be other terrorist attacks going forward but, I mean, nothing on Im talking about major terrorist attacks that kill, mass casualty attacks, so its quite unlikely. So in the political season, which, of course, this has been a big issue, you know, you had Ted Cruz saying that we should bomb Syria, carpet bomb Syria to destroy ISIS, which makes no sense at all since ISIS is closely embedded in the civilian population of major cities in Iraq and Syria.