37 - The International Implications of Domestic Terrorism in the United States

Summary

INTRODUCTION

On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein entered the mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in the West Bank and opened fire on a group of Muslims as they began their morning prayers. More than thirty people, including Goldstein, died that day. Years earlier, when living in Brooklyn, New York, Goldstein was a founding member of the Jewish Defense League, an organization linked to terrorist acts and extremist ideologies in the United States (Firestone, 1994). In October of 1998, James Kopp, an antiabortion extremist, shot and killed Dr. Barnett Slepian in the state of New York. Kopp fled the United States, hiding out in Mexico, Ireland, and France before being caught by law enforcement three years later. Convicted of the crime, Kopp was sentenced to life in federal prison. In addition, Kopp was linked to four other shootings in New York and Canada (Staba, 2007).

This chapter discusses the international implications of domestic terrorism within the United States. With globalization, the separation of peoples through cultural and geographic distance has decreased and in some cases disappeared entirely. In the United States, the proverbial melting pot of religions, ideologies, and cultures, the international implications of domestic terrorism can be far reaching. Extremist beliefs, which were once restricted by the geography of where one lived, can now be broadcast around the globe in seconds. Similarly, individuals willing to commit acts of violence in the name of a fringe ideology can travel anywhere in the world in a matter of days if not hours. This potential for the dissemination of extremist ideologies, the ability for transnational collaboration between terrorists, as well as an increased audience to whom to preach their beliefs, creates unique challenges for law enforcement and intelligence agencies who must share information and work together to make sure that homegrown threats in one country do not turn into an international terrorist incident in another.