Home-grown terror threat "real, different and constant": US Attorney General

Washington, Dec 22 (ANI): US Attorney General Eric Holder has warned although the country is ready to thwart attacks, Americans should be aware that threat of home-grown terror activities are "real and consistent".

Americans "have to be prepared for potentially bad news. What I am trying to do in this interview is to make people aware of the fact that the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant," ABC News quoted Holder, as saying.

He further raised his concern over the alarming rise in the number of Americans who are more than willing to attack and kill their fellow citizens.

"It is one of the things that keeps me up at night. You didn't worry about this even two years ago-about individuals, about Americans, to the extent that we now do. And that is of great concern," he added.

According to Holder, in the last 24 months, 126 people have been indicted on terrorist-related charges, 50 of those being American citizens. He also said that many of these al Qaeda militants have a common link to the American born radical cleric Anwar Al Awlaki.

Authorities suspect Awlaki helped mastermind last year's Christmas Day underwear bombing plot in Detroit, and a recent scheme to blow up cargo planes travelling from Yemen to Europe and the United States.

The US has placed Awlaki on the same terror threat list as Osama bin Laden.

"He would be on the same list with bin Laden," the attorney general said. "He's up there. I don't know whether he's one, two, three, four-I don't know. But he's certainly on the list of the people who worry me the most," he said. (ANI)