Radical Islamists have "totally infiltrated" the United States at every level, including the government, the military and the Department of Homeland Security, says retired Army Gen. Paul Vallely, who appeared Wednesday on
Newsmax TV with retired Army Lt. Col. Scott Mann to discuss the issue.
"The Muslim Brotherhood is backing all of this infiltration and is spending the money to radicalize these people for cells in the United States," Vallely said on "America’s Forum."
Over the past two decades, Mann said, there have been incidents similar to the one announced by the Justice Department this week in which an
Air Force veteran tried in January to join ISIS in Syria.
"In the context of the size of our military and the quality and character of our military, it's actually pretty uncommon," Mann said. "It is something you always have to be on guard for, as radicalization can occur anywhere."
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More concerning to Mann is the radicalization taking place inside the U.S.
"Quite a few folks from street gangs are being radicalized, brought over to fight and then come back home," he said. The
jihadist who opened fire last month in a Copenhagen synagogue and at an event promoting free speech is an example of a gang member radicalized in prison, Mann added.
It’s imperative to national security that Americans act as "the eyes and ears in our communities," said Vallely, who said mosques and prisons are breeding grounds for jihadist recruitment in the U.S.
The FBI has a list of locations around the country where radicalized jihadists are sent for training, he said, including one in southern New York and another in Oregon.
"They have guns, they have ammunition, they have firing areas where they go out and practice, and they also have instruction," he said.
It’s no longer necessary for would-be terrorists to travel to the Northwest Frontier or the border of Pakistan to learn how to make a bomb, said Mann.
"You can read Inspire magazine, which is an al-Qaida document generated out of Yemen that has a nice glossy photo cover that you would probably mistake in a grocery store, and you can learn how to do those things," Mann said. "The Boston bombers got a lot of inspiration and technical guidance from that magazine."
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