BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

(Photo: Joshuashearn)Before I heard about the horrific terrorist attack on the offices of the Paris-based humor magazine, Charlie Hebdo, which resulted in the deaths of at least twelve people and the wounding of many more, I was reading a report in the Washington Examiner about a poll taken by McLaughlin & Associates that found "74.2 percent of likely voters said they fear terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State will strike U.S. targets if they aren't stopped." Now that cable television's news networks are covering the Paris events twenty-four/seven, it is likely that a similar poll taken today might reveal even higher numbers.

Joel C. Rosenberg, in an apparently self-serving move aimed at promoting his new book titled "The Third Target," commissioned the McLaughlin & Associates poll and has been touting the results at his blog. "The Third Target," according to Rosenberg is about "ISIS broadening its attacks outside of Syria and Iraq." Rosenberg, who years ago worked for current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and who currently runs a charity called The Joshua Fund, is the author of a series of best-selling novels dealing with the Middle East.

While Rosenberg's novels consistently deal with terrorist plots in the Middle East, radical Islamists, and his own apocalyptic visions, he steers clear of writing about white, homegrown, Christian-based anti-government radicals in the United States.

In actuality, there are more than enough domestic terrorist incidents to write about.

Recently, "A homemade explosive was detonated ... against an exterior wall of a building that houses the NAACP Colorado Springs chapter as well as Mr. G's Hair Design Studios, a local barbershop," Matt Ferner reported in the Huffington Post. "There were no deaths or injuries from the explosion and only minimal surface damage was done to the wall where the explosion occurred, but chapter president Henry Allen Jr. said the blast was strong enough to knock objects off the wall." According to Ferner, the FBI is investigating the possibility that the explosion "may have been an act of domestic terrorism."

Ferner pointed out that "The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force was leading the investigation into the explosion, but the Colorado Springs Police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have also been involved."

In another vastly under-reported case, in February of last year Terry Eugene Peace, Brian Edward Cannon and Cory Robert Williamson, traveled from Rome, Georgia to Tennessee with one goal in mind: obtain the incendiary devices necessary to carry out an attack on an Atlanta police station. They were seeking "several explosive devices, including a thermite-mix charge and a dozen pipe bombs constructed for 'maximum fragmentation,'" NorthwestGeorgianews.com recently reported. Unfortunately for them, instead of an arms dealer, they met up "an undercover FBI source."

Before their trip, Peace, Cannon and Williamson — all members of a militia in Georgia — "participated in online chat discussions between Jan. 23 and Feb. 15, 2014, that were monitored by the FBI," NorthwestGeorgianews.com pointed out.

"During the conversations online, they discussed using guerilla war tactics and planned to launch attacks against a metro Atlanta police station and several government agencies in February 2014. The three men attempted to 'recruit other individuals to join them and to carry out similar operations in those individuals' home states.' Peace allegedly told other militia members to choose targets including 'road blocks, TSA checkpoints, sheriffs/police conducting operations outside the Constitution' as well as to participate in the 'removal of government people who support extra-Constitutional activities.'"

"The men were arrested in Cartersville, [Georgia] on Feb. 15, 2014, when they took possession of inert explosives and other material given to the source by the FBI." They were "originally arraigned in March 2014 on a charge of conspiracy to receive and possess a destructive device." They were recently indicted "on a much more serious domestic terrorism charge — conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction," an "indictment and charge supersedes the previous indictment," NorthwestGeorigianews.com reported.

Recently, in Memphis, Tennessee, a group called the White Advocacy Movement posted flyers in a Southwest Memphis neighborhood that read: "The blood that was shed yesterday was to keep the blood of tomorrow pure. Today it is your duty, what will YOU make of tomorrow?" wreg.com reported.

The plot to blow up a police station in a major US city was extraordinary in it scope, and it is surprising that it has virtually been un-covered by the mainstream media. Nevertheless, white supremacists, sovereign citizens and other hate-inspired groups and individuals appear to be in action every day somewhere in this country.