Authors delve into radical world of homegrown terrorism in North America
CNN's Peter Bergen, author of The United States of Jihad and historian Mark Bourrie, author of The Killing Game trace the roots of homegrown Jihadists and examines the extremist propaganda machine and its reach into North America.
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The Current25:36Authors delve into radical world of homegrown terrorism in North America
My son said he did it for Allah. Today it is my son, an African-American young boy who was radicalized. Sent off to a foreign land. Loaded up with hate and evil and sent back to America to do something. Today it was my son. Tomorrow it could be your son, your daughter.- Melvin Bledsoe speaking about his son Carlos
On June 1, 2009, the then 24-year-old Carlos Bledsoe opened fired on an Army Recruiting Centre in Little Rock, Arkansas. One soldier died and another was wounded.
The odyssey of Carlos Bledsoe is just one of the disturbing stories told by CNN's national security analyst Peter Bergen in his new book, The United States of Jihad: Investigating America's Homegrown Terrorists. The book looks at the many faces of of jihadist extremism in America and the kind of person who is drawn to join al-Qaeda or ISIS.
Mark Bourriehas taken a hard look at jihadi extremism from a Canadian perspective. He looks at what role the ISIS propaganda machine has on convincing Canadians to fight for ISIS. Bourrie is a historian whose new book, The Killing Game: Martyrdom, Murder, and the Lure of ISIS, looks at how the extremist propaganda machine has reached into North America.
This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.
