Monday, September 28, 2015
Thank you, Maqsoud [Kruse], for that kind introduction.
It is an honor to be back here in New York at this event,
hosted by the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) and
the Hedayah Center. IIJ’s efforts to
uphold and promote the rule of law provide a clear vision not only of what we
are up against, but what we stand for.
As President Obama said, “The essential ingredient to real and lasting
stability and progress is not less democracy; it’s more democracy. It’s institutions that uphold the rule of law
and apply justice equally.” We are
honored to join you in carrying out this mission.
Likewise, we stand with the Hedayah Center, the first-ever
International Center of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism (CVE). Less than three years since its inauguration,
Hedayah is already bringing together expertise and experience from around the
globe to prevent individuals from ever starting down the path toward
radicalization to violence. Hedayah’s
work is essential to our collective success.
To both the IIJ and the Hedayah Center, your partnership
reflects an integrated counterterrorism approach, critical to keeping people
safe. Thank you.
Global Changes
At the U.S. Department of Justice, we fight against ISIL to
protect the American public, here and abroad.
But we also understand that our work contributes to global efforts to
eliminate the threat ISIL poses to innocents around the world. We recognize our collective responsibility to
prevent our citizens from going overseas or funding others to join ISIL in a
campaign that uses rape, sexual slavery and the murder of civilians, including
children, as tactics for success.
Last year, the United States joined the international
community in a historic step, with the adoption of UN Security Council
Resolution 2178. Through Resolution
2178, the global community committed to address the foreign terrorist fighter
threat through law enforcement, border security, information sharing and
countering violent extremism.
And the international community has made great strides to
honor that commitment.
Many nations have implemented the best practices endorsed at
the Global Counterterrorism Forum. In
the United States, we have in place law enforcement investigative tools and
techniques that are both effective and protective of individual rights and the
rule of law. We use sophisticated
undercover operations to disrupt those who plan to travel to engage in
terrorism, allowing us to identify the threats early – before potential
fighters travel, train or return. We
criminalize providing a broad range of material support for terrorist activity. These are tools we have used for many years and
ones that are now globally recognized as invaluable in our fight against
terrorism.
Since the adoption of Resolution 2178, we have visited more
than 20 countries to consult on legislative reform and investigative and
prosecutorial strategies, and to learn from their experiences. We assisted nations pursuing their first
foreign terrorist fighter prosecutions and exchanged best practices. We will continue these efforts in the coming
year.
Since the adoption of Resolution 2178, over 20 countries
have enacted or strengthened their laws and nearly three dozen nations have
taken law enforcement actions to disrupt foreign fighters and aspirants.
Since last year’s meeting, foreign terrorist fighter cases
in the United States have increased from about a dozen to more than 50. In total, since 2013, we have publicly
charged more than 70 individuals, in over 25 districts, for foreign terrorist
fighter or homegrown violent extremist-related conduct. And the FBI has open investigations of
suspected supporters of ISIL in all 50 states.
It is hard to believe that it has been only one year since
we all gathered in New York for last September’s historic events. While we have made tremendous progress in our
collective global efforts to combat the threat of foreign terrorist fighters,
we must redouble our efforts. This will
be a multi-year struggle.
Threat Evolution
We must continue to grow and evolve, because the threat
will.
At about this time last year, foreign terrorist fighters in
Syria and Iraq numbered about 15,000.
Recent estimates show that today that number has nearly doubled – to an
estimated 28,000 – a number that dwarfs the foreign fighter numbers at the
height of the Afghan conflict in the 1980s and 90s.
These figures are not precise because they come from a
variety of sources that vary in quality.
And it may be that our efforts have made us better at identifying and
counting these individuals. But the
trend line is nonetheless disturbing.
Twenty-eight thousand people, from 100 countries worldwide, who threaten
not only the regions to which they travel but also the countries to which they
return.
These figures highlight the need for nations to continue and
in fact increase efforts to collectively fight ISIL. There is still much to do, including to find
ways to disrupt ISIL’s ability to recruit and radicalize followers through
social media.
In an interconnected world, it takes just the push of a
button for ISIL to reach an exponentially greater number of people. ISIL has turned to social media – the
language of youth and a global marketing tool designed to reach households
around the world. According to FBI
Director [James] Comey, ISIL now has about 21,000 English-language followers on
Twitter alone.
ISIL exploits social media to recruit, to disseminate
messaging and to plan attacks. We have
seen each of these borne out in the United States.
A young Mississippi couple – just 20- and 22-years-old –
recently attempted to travel to Syria to join ISIL. They used social media to communicate with an
individual they believed was an ISIL recruiter and researched their trip
online.
A 17-year-old resident of Virginia used Twitter to provide
instructions on how to use Bitcoin, a virtual currency, to mask providing funds
to ISIL. He also facilitated travel for
an 18-year-old who traveled to Syria to join ISIL.
We know that ISIL used Twitter to terrorize Mosul before
their attack. ISIL also uses social
media to make public calls for lone offender attacks in the West.
Millions of social media users simply reject ISIL’s
propaganda. Although only a tiny
percentage of susceptible, and often young, people have been influenced by ISIL
online, that number is still too large.
Even one is too many. Social
media creates for this segment a sort of “radicalization echo chamber,” where
social media followers reinforce for each other ISIL’s propaganda.
In the U.S., we have identified new trends in our
investigations and prosecutions, seemingly driven in part by the influence of
social media. Here, the threat is not
confined geographically or ethnically.
First, youth. ISIL
continues to target the young, including children, in its recruiting efforts,
and its message is getting through. In
the United States, over 55 percent of defendants in foreign terrorist fighter
cases are under 25-years-old. Over a
third are 21 or younger. Last October,
three juvenile girls from Colorado attempted to travel to Syria to join
ISIL. They were diverted in Frankfurt
and returned to the United States, thanks to the efforts of our German
partners, but they were not the first nor will they be the last.
Second, and perhaps most alarming, we are witnessing a surge
in what we call homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) – individuals inspired by
this extremist ideology to conduct attacks inside the United States. ISIL and its supporters have repeatedly
called for attacks right where potential attackers live. Terrorism with the reach of mass, global
marketing. No passport or travel
required.
To prevent tragedy, we must prevent people from answering
that call, both in the United States and across the globe. In April of this year, a man inspired by ISIL
attempted to detonate what he believed was a fully functional bomb just outside
a military installation in Kansas. He
intended to kill as many military personnel as he could.
And, just this month, a man inspired by ISIL was arrested
for distributing information on how to construct a WMD (weapon of mass
destruction). He hoped that the accurate
information he provided would be used to conduct an attack against a Sept. 11th
memorial ceremony in Missouri. The list,
unfortunately, goes on. Law enforcement
techniques and strategies are needed.
The Need for a Comprehensive Approach
So what do we do together to counter ISIL and address these
alarming trends?
Law enforcement is a powerful tool, but it cannot be our
only tool. In addition to a strong and
enforceable counterterrorism legal regime, we must also develop ways to reach
individuals early on their path toward radicalization. Before they respond to ISIL’s siren song.
This group and our many partners dedicated to countering
violent extremism are critical to doing just that.
Much of what we do on this front echoes the practices set
out in the GCTF’s (Global Counterterrorism Forum’s) Hague-Marrakech Memorandum.
First, we must do more to empower those who are best-placed
to affect change – especially parents and those who know their communities
best. Our efforts are most successful
when we partner with all communities to uphold the law.
Local communities, including faith communities, form the
fabric of our nations and community members are often best-positioned to
identify and relate to individuals who have begun on a path to violent
extremism.
Recognizing the key role of communities in combating violent
extremism and the need for more than a top-down approach to CVE, U.S. Attorney
General Loretta Lynch will open tomorrow’s Strong Cities Network meeting. The Strong Cities Network is the first ever global
network of municipal leaders involved in building community resilience. It is a powerful example of our integrated
strategy in this area – ensuring well informed and equipped families, community
leaders and institutions.
Because community members see things that law enforcement
agencies do not. Here in the United
States, one study found that in more than 80 percent of cases involving
homegrown violent extremists, third-party bystanders observed activities or
behaviors suggesting radicalization or violent intent. However, more than half of the witnesses
discounted or downplayed their observations.
So community members are not only best positioned to intervene with
those on a path towards violent extremism, they also may be the first to see
potential steps towards radicalization.
Recognizing the importance of community engagement in early
intervention, the Department of Justice has developed three community-based
pilot programs – in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; the greater Boston area;
and Los Angeles. Government, academic
and community leaders are working together to develop counter narratives, youth
programming and constructive dialogue on disengagement. Strong outreach programs for communities and
training for law enforcement have led to a relationship of trust and increased
cooperation on everything from civil rights to radicalization-to-violence.
The Department of Justice is also exploring options to
intervene with would-be violent extremists before violence occurs, and to
address disengagement and rehabilitation, including “off ramps” to prosecution.
CVE will require community engagement, but it will also
require, as recognized in the Hague-Marrakech Memorandum, countering ISIL’s use
of online tools and social media.
First, although ISIL uses social media and open platforms for
recruitment, they also conduct their operational planning through
communications, sometimes encrypted, using mainstream technology. Those providing the services must take
responsibility for how their services can be abused. Responsible providers need to understand what
the threats are and to take action to prevent terrorist groups from abusing
their services to induce recruits to commit terrorist acts.
Beyond that, we need to use social media to reveal ISIL for
what it is – a group that beheads and kills Muslims and non-Muslims with the
same impunity; rapes and sells women into sexual slavery; and pillages and
destroys historical artifacts. We must
strip away the slick propaganda and the glossy images and lay bare the truth.
We also must harness social media’s power to provide a
positive vision for young people. We
commend the efforts of the Sawab Center and others who partner with us to do
just that. Social media is a powerful
platform for amplifying the stories of ISIL defectors, broadcasting the misery
of life under ISIL and displaying the damage they are doing to Muslim
communities and to the causes they claim to defend.
And importantly, social media allows us to amplify the
stories of young people who are overcoming difficult circumstances – channeling
their talent and energy to produce positive change in their societies.
To succeed, we must work together. We must take the lessons learned in each of
our countries and put them to use globally.
We must confront the violent extremist threat on all fronts.
Law enforcement will remain a strong tool in this
battle. But it alone is not enough. Our first goal ought to be to dissuade
would-be foreign fighters from joining ISIL in the first place. That requires us to engage with our
communities and support efforts to identify possible interventions at every
step of the foreign terrorist fighter development cycle, from recruitment and
radicalization, to mobilization and return.
We must work together to disrupt and detain those who have already gone,
while simultaneously deterring those who seek to follow that path.
We look forward to hearing how our international partners
address prevention, rehabilitation and reentry in the panels to come. Thank you.
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