The New Terrorist: Homegrown in the USA

The five Virginians busted on terror charges in Pakistan this week are only the latest example of the growing threat of homegrown terrorism. American Muslims, long thought to be less a threat because they tend to be better assimilated than European Muslims, have been implicated in three other investigations this year. "The US is experiencing what countries like the UK have gone through several years ago," says one global security expert.

"As we continue to get enmeshed in these conflicts, it's naive to think our population is not going to be affected by the global rhetoric surrounding this," a Georgetown professor tells the Washington Post. But the American Muslim community itself has proven key in policing extremists from within its ranks: community leaders contacted authorities in the Virginia case, as well as an earlier one in Minnesota.