New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly believes the Boston Marathon bombings were a type of jihad attack that is on the rise in the United States.
“I see this as an ongoing pattern. We’ve seen these radicalized young men do, or try to do, similar things,’’ Kelly told Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show.’’
“We’ve had 16 plots here against the city, many of them involving young, disaffected men who are committed to killing Americans.’’
Kelly said those threats have remained “relatively constant’’ and “we don’t see it waning.’’
“What we do see is a shift from the sort of organized, top-down direction than we saw early on after 9/11 from al-Qaida to a more free-form, do-what-you-can approach,’’ Kelly said.
“[That’s] where individuals will get, in essence, radicalized on the Internet. They usually have someone who is a sanctioner that leads them along or mentors them.’’
He pointed to a 2007 study conducted by two of the NYPD’s top intelligence analysts that looked at the radicalization process of future terrorists.
“[They are] what they call unremarkable young men who go into four phases of jihadization,’’ Kelly said.
“They’re looking for a place in the world. They’re looking for meaning, looking for a cause. … They decide to get jihad. And after that decision is made, they can act pretty quickly.’’
