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Domestic terrorists and violent extremists have found their way into the headlines recently - with the June fatal shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and the April murder of abortion doctor George Tiller in Kansas.
No state or community is immune from the activities of extremists, officials say.
In Indiana, domestic terrorist activity tends to come from three areas - environmental extremists, animal rights extremists and white supremacists, according to FBI Special Agent Danny L. Barkley.
A native Midwesterner with 30 years in law enforcement, 18 of those with the FBI, Barkley is the special agent in charge of the Indianapolis Division's National Security and Intelligence operations.
He is quick to draw the line between a terrorist and an extremist, stressing it is not illegal to have views that most Americans might find offensive or immoral.
"Your speech can be very offensive to me, a citizen," Barkley said.
But when that view or that speech turns into an action that breaks the law - such as a bombing or a threat - then it becomes the FBI's problem, he said.
And it is only when an organized group comes together for criminal activity that it becomes a target of federal law enforcement, he said.
Existing without any help from people outside the U.S., domestic terrorism can involve violence targeting people, an intention to overthrow the government, economic espionage or sabotage, or threatening communications, Barkley said.
Domestic terrorism and extremist behavior are often in reaction to local, national or political issues, but if a community indicates somehow that it supports a certain behavior or ideology, the group or activity can grow, Barkley said.
Currently, environmental extremists have drawn the attention of the FBI through their disruptive protests of the Interstate 69 extension in the Bloomington and Evansville areas, Barkley said.
Much of their protest activities center on disrupting the construction project by sitting in trees or creating human barricades outside construction company entrances.
Barkley said he is unaware of any loss of life attributed to environmental extremism or animal-rights extremism within the state, though there have been some cases of arson in the Bloomington area.
And for the most part, Hoosiers seem not to give a lot of support to the environmental activism going on in the southern part of the state, which seems to involve influence from elsewhere in the country, Barkley said.
Indiana's long history with the Ku Klux Klan, which in the 1920s included a governor and other elected officials, is still reflected in 15 white supremacist hate groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Locally, Warsaw is home to White Aryan Resistance leader Tom Metzger. The White Nationalist group WTM Enterprises is based in Roanoke, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The election of the nation's first black president, Barack Obama, has been a bit of rallying cry for a variety of organizations such as white supremacists, militias and patriot groups, Barkley said.
In the past, the FBI tended to characterize domestic terrorism as left-wing or right-wing.
"We've gone away from that kind of characterization," Barkley said.
Now they see more overlap in tactics such groups employ, he said.
The Internet makes it easier for people to become "self-radicalized," finding like-minded individuals or activities.
"Whatever you might have an interest in, you can search for it," he said.
White supremacy organizations historically have tended to be the most violent toward people, with environmental and animal rights extremism tending toward disruption and property destruction, Barkley said.
And all terrorism is part of the bureau's No. 1 priority. The domestic terrorism squad of the Joint Terrorism Task Force helps to that end, Barkley said.
Indiana's task force is made up of agents and law enforcement officers "strategically placed" throughout the state, with the majority of the group in Indianapolis, he said.
Statistically, terrorist activity in the U.S. primarily involves bombs and arson, according to the Global Terrorism Database compiled by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.
Barkley said he would like to see local law enforcement agencies handle bomb cases, no matter how small, more seriously.
It is common, he said, for local departments to write off the incidents, which could have a link to domestic terrorism.
"As we get further away from 9/11, people tend to return to their old ways," Barkley said. "We need to remain vigilant."
