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Attorney General Eric Holder Revives Domestic Terror Task Force

The attorney general said the deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, and the Boston Marathon bombings demonstrate the danger of homegrown terror.
Image: President Obama meets with the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force
Attorney General Eric Holder attends a meeting with the My Brother's Keeper Task Force to receive a 90-day report on its progress in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on May 30.Olivier Douliery / Pool via EPA

Attorney General Eric Holder, citing an “escalating danger from self-radicalized individuals within our own borders,” said Tuesday that the Justice Department will revive a domestic terrorism task force.

The task force was established after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 to share information about domestic threats. It was set to meet the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, after which the country turned its focus to terror overseas.

“But now, as the nature of the threat we face evolves to including the possibility of individual radicalization via the Internet, it is critical that we return our focus to potential extremists here at home,” Holder said in a weekly video.

The attorney general cited no specific domestic threat. But he said that the deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, and the Boston Marathon bombings demonstrate the danger of homegrown terror.

The task force will comprise the Justice Department, the FBI and federal prosecutors, and will coordinate with law enforcement across the country to make sure information is shared, Holder said.

The FBI and prosecutors have broken up homegrown terror plots in recent years, he said, including “plans by ‘lone wolf’-style actors” trying to provide support to terror networks in Syria and elsewhere abroad.

— Erin McClam