Washington, DC – The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today held a hearing to examine the threat of domestic radicalization in the US, continuing an investigation started last year by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). Today’s hearing included testimony from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other DHS representatives.
Senator Collins, Ranking Member of the Committee, expressed concern that there is “a false sense of security in this country that domestic radicalization and homegrown terrorists are not a threat here, that we’re different from Western Europe. But that fact should be a very small comfort to us, not only because it can and is happening here, but also because radicalized extremists from Great Britain and from France, who are citizens of those countries, can travel here easily.”
Senator Collins reiterated her belief, which she expressed last year in a letter to the White House, “that to prevent domestic radicalization, which has been identified as a precursor to terrorism, the federal government must prioritize outreach to American Muslims to foster positive relations and build strong community ties.” Senator Collins also discussed with Secretary Chertoff the importance of strengthening Visa Waiver Program requirements so that violent extremists in participating countries cannot travel to the United States. Provisions strengthening the Visa Waiver Program were included in the Lieberman-Collins Improving America’s Security Act of 2007, passed yesterday by the Senate.
She added, “The Department must combine vital and vigorous counter-measures against terrorism with the kind of engagement with the Muslim community that reassures them that they are valued fellow citizens and that helps deprive terrorists of their tools of fear and hatred.”
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