BBC: Obama security strategy to highlight domestic terrorism

[Twoller]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_...a/10169144.stm

Obama security strategy to highlight domestic terrorism

The US president's national security strategy is to highlight homegrown terrorism for the first time, an adviser to Barack Obama says.

John Brennan said the document being unveiled on Thursday explicitly recognised the threat posed by "individuals radicalised here at home".

The issue has grabbed headlines since the Fort Hood shooting last year and the Times Square bombing attempt.

Domestic terrorism did not feature highly in previous strategies.

Bill Clinton did not mention the issue in his 1998 strategy, despite the Oklahoma City bombing three years earlier, while George W Bush made only passing reference to the issue in his 2006 document.

Presidents use their national security strategy to set broad goals and priorities for keeping Americans safe, the Associated Press notes.

Such documents have far-reaching effects on spending, defence policies and security strategy, the news agency adds.

President Bush's 2002 strategy, for example, which spelled out a doctrine of pre-emptive war and talked of "stopping rogue states", was followed a year later by the invasion of Iraq.

'Delegitimise the enemy'

Mr Brennan, deputy national security adviser for counter-terrorism and homeland security, previewed the new strategy in an address to Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"We've seen an increasing number of individuals here in the United States become captivated by extremist activities or causes," he said.

"We've seen individuals, including US citizens, armed with their US passport, travel easily to terrorist safe havens and return to America, their deadly plans disrupted by coordinated intelligence and law enforcement," Mr Brennan added.

He argued that "unprecedented" pressure on al-Qaeda since Mr Obama took office had severely limited the militant network's ability to operate.

Now, he said, it was relying on poorly trained "foot soldiers" who might be able to slip past US defences because they did not fit the conventional profile of a terrorist.

Mr Obama outlined his vision on a visit to West Point "This is the new phase of the terrorist threat, no longer limited to coordinated, sophisticated, 9/11 style attacks," Mr Brennan said.

"As our enemy adapts and evolves their tactics, so must we constantly adapt and evolve ours, not in a rush driven by fear, but in a thoughtful and reasoned way that enhances our security and further delegitimises the actions of our enemy."

He stressed that the US was at war not with Islam but "al-Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates".

AP, which obtained a summary of the actual document, says Mr Obama is breaking with the go-it-alone Bush years, counting more on allies to tackle terrorism and other global problems.

Mr Obama touched on many of the themes in the new strategy during a commencement address on Saturday to graduating cadets at West Point, it adds.

He said the US must shape a world order relying as much on the persuasiveness of its diplomacy as the might of its military.