by Ron Nixon

About the author: Ron Nixon is a general assignment reporter for the political journal Southern Exposure.

The 1994 World Trade Center bombing, the bombings at the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and Atlanta’s Centennial Park during the 1996 Olympics, as well as the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, focused public fear on the vulnerability of the US to terrorist attacks. These tragedies sparked intensive investigations and provoked often strident calls for countermeasures. Although some of the assaults were attributed to foreign fanatics, others brought home the reality that America is capable of producing its own violent extremists.

For many, particularly media pundits, these attacks signal the end of American insouciance: Terrorism has finally penetrated US borders. Yet strangely absent in the public discourse on the perceived upsurge in domestic terrorism is a long pattern...