12/07/2011 -

The FBI in its annual National Gang Threat assessment said one of its key findings was that “gang infiltration of the military continues to pose a significant criminal threat,” allowing gang members to learn combat techniques that they can use back home in their communities. The FBI says there are more than 53 different gangs represented in the ranks of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

The Committee on Homeland Security thinks you should add jihadists to that list of infiltrators.

A “significant and growing number of military personnel” are actually terrorists in disguise posing a “serious danger to their brothers and sisters in arms who wear the same uniform,” according to a report released on Wednesday by the Committee on Homeland Security.

The key findings of an investigation by the Majority Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security were published online prior to Wednesday’s hearing on homegrown terrorism threats to members of the military. Wednesday’s hearing was the first joint House Committee on Homeland Security and Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing and the fourth installment of Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY)hearings on Muslim radicalization in the United States.

“The likelihood of another deadly attack by a trusted insider is a severe and emerging threat, which the Pentagon is aggressively investigating to identify perpetrators…The Committee’s Majority Staff has reason to believe that the actual number of radicalized troops is far more than publicly realized or acknowledged,” the report states. As evidence, the committee provides narratives of plots involving insiders since 9-11.

Since then, more than five terror plots that involved military insiders have been thwarted. Only two terrorist attacks involving “radicalized soldiers” have been successful. The first was in 2003 when Army sergeant Hasan Akbar killed two and wounded 14 soldiers after stealing grenades and a rifle and mounting an attack on senior Army personnel at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. The second was the shooting at Ft. Hood carried out by Nidal Malik Hasan. Hasan killed 13 and wounded 29.

“The Ft. Hood attack was not an anomaly. It was part of al Qaeda’s two decades success at infiltrating the U.S. military for terrorism, and effort that is increasing in scope and threat,” King said.

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