THE WARNING - AT 7:17 A.M. ET:  From the Washington Post:

Senior U.S. counterterrorism officials are stepping up warnings that Islamist extremists in Somalia are radicalizing Americans to their cause, citing their recruitment of the first U.S. citizen suicide bomber and their potential role in the disappearance of more than a dozen Somali American youths...

...Since November, the FBI has raced to uncover any ties to foreign extremist networks in the unexpected departures of numerous Somali American teenagers and young men, who family members believe are in Somalia. The investigation is active in Boston; San Diego; Seattle; Columbus, Ohio; and Portland, Maine, a U.S. law enforcement official said...

...intelligence officials said the recruitment of U.S. citizens by terrorist groups is particularly worrisome because their American passports could make it easier for them to reenter the country.

COMMENT:  We have an image in our heads that terrorist threats come primarily from the Middle East.  In fact, Pakistan and Somalia are emerging as major centers of concern.  The fact that young Somali men here could suddenly vanish is chilling.  The war on terror, discredited in some smug circles, is far from over.

March 11, 2009