There have been several terrorist acts committed in the United States of America, not by terrorists that live in other countries and despise the American ways and ideas, but by our own citizens who live and work in the United States of America. Domestic terrorism is done by a person or group of persons who reside here, who are not acting on behalf of a foreign power, and who may be conducting criminal activities in support of terrorist ideas and whose acts are aimed at elements of the U.S. Government or population. Those objectives range from distrust of the government, to hatred of a specific type of person or people or their beliefs. They organize around civil rights, war, feminism and other political themes.
The threat to the United States from domestic extremists is a very serious one. This was brought to light on April 19, 1995, when Timothy McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols detonated a massive truck bomb that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
United States
English: Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (1731 ...
FBI mugshot of Timothy McVeigh.It was the second most deadly terrorist act to occur on American soil. It has still not been completely determined if McVeigh and Nichols acted on their own or were part of a form of terrorism committed by small groups or individuals to exert pressure on a specific group or the government to grant recognition to a larger group with whom they relate or identify with.
Domestic terrorism was again visited after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World trade Center in New York when anthrax attacks occurred in Washington, New York and Florida. Top FBI and CIA officials believe that the anthrax attacks on Washington, New York and Florida were likely the work of one or more extremists in the United States (Woodard, B., Eggen, D., 2001). And the...