Holder Warns of Homegrown Terror Risk

AG: 'American people would be surprised'
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 30, 2009 9:28 AM CDT
Holder Warns of Homegrown Terror Risk
Attorney General Eric Holder congratulates the Shawl House program as he discusses how Recovery Act funds are being used to support the fight against violence against women July 16, 2009.    (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The chilling big picture suggests that “the radicalization of Americans” who leave the country and return wanting to do “harm to the American people” is a growing threat, Eric Holder tells ABC News. It’s “something that didn’t loom as large a few months ago as it does now," says the AG. "That’s the shifting nature of the threats that keeps you up at night.”

“The American people would be surprised by the depth of the threat, but also reassured to see the assets that have been deployed around the world,” Holder said, praising the Bush administration’s leftover infrastructure. Some in the Justice Department, however, “simply lost their way” on detention and interrogation, he says. It is his job “to hold people accountable” if laws were broken, though “we want to move forward.”
(More Eric Holder stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X