NEW YORK, NY October 30, 2007 —Counter-terrorism experts from the New York Police Department will testify later today before a US Senate panel. They'll report that since the September 11th attacks of 6 years ago, western countries, including the United States, have seen an increase in the number of so-called "self-styled" terrorists cells. WNYC's Bob Hennelly has more.

Today's testimony by the NYPD before the Senate's Homeland Security Committee will draw heavily from a recently completed department review of 11 terror plots here in the US, Europe, Canada and Australia.

The findings were based on global fieldwork and social network analysis of all plot participants and their support systems The review found plotters were often successful middle class Muslim men who over time came to identify with what the NYPD calls a jihadi ideology.

Some of the plots, like the ones in London and Madrid, came to fruition with massive causalities The report says today's cells are decentralized and self-directed with the Internet now fulfilling the training function that travelling to remote camps in Afghanistan once filled.

For WNYC I'm Bob Hennelly.