Homegrown terror

What to make of a handful of Americans joining the ranks of terror?

A New Jersey man was arrested in Yemen the other day during a sweep of al-Qaida in Sanai, the capital. Sharif Mobley, 26, was being taken to a hospital for treatment when he allegedly took a security guard's gun and shot two guards, one fatally, before being subdued, the New York Times reported.

The suspect was born in the United States to a Muslim family of Somali immigrants. He had worked at nuclear plants in New Jersey before going to Yemen to study Arabic. He reportedly had contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American cleric whose sermons have been found on computers of several terrorism suspects in the West.

The arrest follows that of Colleen LaRose, who called herself "Jihad Jane," a 46-year-old Muslim convert from a Philadelphia, Pa., suburb accused of plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist who had depicted the prophet Muhammad.

She is still being held, but another American woman was arrested briefly in Ireland before being released. Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, of Leadville, Colo., had been questioned in connection with the case. She and her husband, an Algerian, had contact with Ms. LaRose in Ireland.

In another case, Najibullah Zazi, a legal immigrant from Afghanistan, has admitted guilt in a plot to blow up the New York subway.

Speaking about a growing concern over domestic terrorists, Rick Nelson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told the Times: "It's a troubling trend, fed by an ideological claim found all over the Web that says the U.S. is at war with Islam. That's the message we have to puncture."

It is a disturbing development in the war on terror.