Thanks for coming to our session , a Civil Society approach to preventing terrorism and targeted violence. I am a senior policy analyst with new Americas National security program. We are a think and action tanks civic life form that connects technology labs, solutions networks, media hub, and public forum. From homegrown american terrorism to United States drone wars abroad, and a corporation drones around the world to the profound changes in warfare brought by new technology and societal changes. Theuld like to introduce presentation on our new initiative before we jump into the panel portion. He was once a jihadist propagandist who ran revolutionary muslim, a new york citybased organization active in the 2000s connected to a number of terrorism cases. He connected al qaedas ideology and transformed it for america creating englishlanguage propaganda. 2011e radicalized in following his arrest in casablanca and incarceration in the u. S. After his presentation, i will invite the rest of our speakers to join us on stage and provide an introduction for each of them. We will discuss the changing threat landscape, future of terrorism practices, and the relationship between farright and jihadis him. We will save the last for audience q a. Good afternoon. Thank you for attending the event. Speciallike to express gratitude to new america for hosting this event, a civil size citing approach to preventing terrorism and extremist violence. Control alt delete hate is a magazine that will be issued in print and online. We will be passing around copies. It is an ecosystem approach to combating extremism that we have been building out since we got started. Of a meretive is more counter narrative tool. It is part of our holistic approach to the threat caused by mutually enforcing extremisms in the u. S. First a little on the projects background. Control alt delete hate is more than just a magazine. For over year mitch and i with the assistance of many supporters and the counter extremism project in their team of researchers have been working on advancing a program that can assist in combating the mounting threat posed by far rightwing extremism. My partnership with mitch was announced publicly on june 4, 2018 with an event right here at new america that documented the nefarious legacy i once built as a jihadi propagandist and mitch combated with the nypd as director of intelligence. We have learned a great deal. After researching, networking, publishing reports, designing programs we launched the online ecosystem we will discuss in more detail and in which control alt delete hate will be incorporated. This project came about as the result of much effort. Since our inception we have been putting together a network of former extremists, victims of extremism, activists, researchers, reporters, and others who believe in our model. Thinking about control alt delete hate started a week ago during the week of activity that made it apparent we needed to get moving fast. Theadded activity included tree of life and a white supremacist who tried to get into a barricaded africanamerican church and shot two elderly africanamericans at a supermarket in kentucky. Things have gotten a lot worse since then, but we have started at that time to select a team of farmers and victims of rightwing extremism that can serve alongside former jihadists to help us expand into the rightwing space going forward. At the core of our network, the theest the leader of largest neonazi network in america for two decades. Others. Nd and people like hope, an africanamerican woman whose father was murdered by white supremacist, and she is actually in contact with the individual who murdered him and provides support and empathy. These have been our interventionist. At the same time we have supported one another. Control alt delete hate is a byproduct of these efforts, the beginning of our effort in the rightwing space the rightwing space. I would like to talk about our approach to this problem. Weieve that farmers believe formers offer an unrivaled insight, particularly when teemed with an amazing collective of others from different spectrums of activity. Our efforts draw from the transdisciplinary model that we called the parallel network philosophy. It takes a systemic approach to extend activity so that what was typically standalone help lines with no outreach and little publicity and marketing, failed counter narrative campaigns that cannot reach the targeted audience and are essentially ineffective, because they are not connected to a Broader Network or movement. We thought of a alternative network or movement, one that first seeks to rival the insight and scope and worldview that network that ties extremists together. Only then we believe can you map that networks impact and measure the result of intervention oriented engagement. So ctrl alt delhate will serve as a cornerstone of these efforts. A bit more muggy history and how this template was established. The methodology we will use to disseminate it will be based on a Pilot Initiative we launched in june 2019, six months ago. When i was a jihadist recruiter and propagandist on behalf of al qaeda from 2003 until 2011, i collaborated with several premier jihadis right here in the u. S. To create the first englishlanguage jihadist magazines. I designed and wrote the lead article for the first issue. We called jihad recollections. After my new york citybased organization threatened the writers of south park for portraying the prophet mohammed, al qaeda launched their own iteration called inspire. Over the years, these magazines weaponized up again to an unseen weaponized propaganda in ways unseen beforehand. Mitch and i came up with the idea of taking that template back that i once initiated and using it for positive purposes. We designed a counter narrative product that outdid jihadists in Graphic Design called in arabic for people of consciousness. We included articles that deconstructed the jihadist ideology, included the testimony of formers like myself and offered a positive alternative worldview that we call a dialogue of civilizations model, equally applicable as we address perceived threats from the farright for the ethnostate they categorize as western civilization. A month before the launch we have a core hosting hub for ctrl alt delhate. We will embed it there. Onlaunched the first issue the fifth anniversary of the launch of isissocalled caliphate. Before the launch, we got the jihadist sympathizers to believe isis was about to launch a new englishlanguage magazine. That, coupled with the media rollout that generated publicity, forced extremist recruiters to respond as we invaded their echo chambers. It is essentially the only counter narrative product that has been utilized over encrypted platforms like telegram, where extremists, including the far right, are migrating as a result of efforts by mainstream social Media Companies like facebook, twitter, and youtube to remove extremist content. When we first launched it, the jihadist recruiters were angry. We kept popping up in their closed discussion groups because we had multiple moles in their network. This is a method mitch knows the importance of. That led to private discourse where we were screen shutting screen shouting conversations. Screen shoting conversations. We looked at the entrance of their leadership and inability to respond to arguments, spamming them with evidence against those they hold as leaders. At the same time, the magazine connects to interventions. It is not a standalone counter narrative product. For example, after reading and then coming to threaten me on twitter, i have established good relations and i am supporting a prominent individual that caused quite a bit of fanfare when he returned back to the west having joined isis, but remains free of criminal charges. Several similar interventions have risen as a result of our embeddedness in the englishlanguage network. Now, each article in each addition serves as a standalone piece on the website and is utilized for linking to engagement, sharing over social media, and putting into extremist conversation threads online. We also use it for prevention. In 2020, we will print hard copies of both and visit cities around the u. S. , speaking publicly with our core team to raise awareness and promote the Intervention Services. Now that we launched ctrl alt delhate, we can use the same method for domestic extremist collectives and discuss reciprocal radicalization. Ctrl alt delhate the magazine becomes not a standalone counter narrative product built on the if you build it they will come si hypothesis, nor something to insignificant in scope and application to have an impact. I will every on the holistic nature of the project and how it fits into the ecosystem. First in ctrl alt delhate, it is more than just the need name of a magazine. It is something we utilize as a clear paradigm in conducting personal and collective transformations. Based on keystrokes and playing off the popularized altright brand name, it operates off a unique framework for storytelling and transformation. The first stage, control, is to pause and process when confronted with extremist behavior ideology. As holocaust survivor Victor Frankel once stated, between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that is the chance to respond and in that response lies our growth and our freedom. Our approach is dedicated to this. Control transitions to alt, to alter course, recognize that we need to look not just to the response to extremism, but alternative courses to address what are often legitimate grievances by nonviolent mechanisms. That turns to delete hate, for us all to recognize that in such a tumult was period, only all of tumultuous period, only all of society can address this threat. When applied, individuals can grasp deradicalization. The message of the magazine has an underlying method to appeal to the individual. Shift hate is the next component of our ecosystem. This is where oneonone engagements occur. The authors in the First Edition of the magazine and other support staff have facilitated. Shift stands for support and help for individuals and family touched by hate. Under that, we run a 24 7 helpline. We are unrivaled access to online extremist networks. Without any marketing or broadbased support from government or social Media Companies, we have conducted nearly 100 interventions, many with key hubs of extremist movements. For example, jeff and a young female former far right wing propagandist are here with us today and offer a case study of those that have benefited from the parallel network philosophy. We contacted those that disengage publicly from extremist movements and offered them support as well. We used shift to provide some of the only support for terroristrelated offenders returning to the states after their incarceration, and have used their case studies to conduct research and recommendations on how to address their concerns. The final component of the ecosystem is society against violent extremism and hate. If shift hate offers a saveit based approach, hate is the assetbased approach to build out the network that can transform into. Into a movement. Extremists dont simply offer a message. They offer a coherent rule worldview and counterculture, a community built on axioms. They develop ecochambers where opposition is drowned out by noise and confirmation bias. Extremist recruiters remain fluid, adjusting almost endless nimbly. Componentate influences utilizers and concentrates on formulating that parallel network, the network built on principles antithetical to hate that come together synergistically to offer a complete alternative to the extremist ecochamber. You can see on this slide the different intersectional components. First, this serves as the core hub of the ecosystem and generate safe space. It hosts all of our activity. Is hosted there. Taken together the system , permits extremist energies to be transitioned in a manner that creates opportunities for individuals and groups to experience the same meaning of significance and sense of belonging extremists offer. Second is research. The understanding today is evidence based initiatives with triple outcomes must precede implementation. We seek to learn by doing and then measure outcomes. Extremism is fluid. The lag associated with topdown social science often means the implementation of data driven interventions that are no longer appropriate in a climate that has already shifted. We first start the growth of the parallel network, and we measure engagements effectively, only once the network coalesces, and can be juxtaposed with contraction or expansion of the extremist network we seek to alter. The partnerships and consultancy is key. Theres currently too much competition and not enough cveaboration in the pbe space. Country of performers, victims of extremism, they all do their own things independently, but their engagement with the activity in the ecosystem allows their individual efforts to magnify. It becomes less about the individual and more about the movement. Think of the way charismatic preachers and propagandists operate under the extremist brand but still become individual icons, archetypal representatives that embody the mission of their causes and organizations. Ctrl alt delhate will help us build out effective alternatives and positive messaging. That will lead to broader marketing and raising Public Awareness about the shift hate Intervention Services and save hate will expand partnerships and influencers to provide a key means of networking to expand the movement. All of these components feed off of and into each other. From a social service perspective, they are designed to approach the issue of violent extremism as a Public Health phenomenon, and to demark each component of the brand so it can fulfill engagement and levels of prevention, harm reduction, intervention, Restorative Justice and rehab, the whole social service spectrum. Finally, then, going forward, now we have to advance and expand the parallel network. We have only been up and running this publicly light upon light ecosystem for six months. We will expand it through activities within each of the essential components. We will build out more research. We have heavily embedded and are in contact with Networks Like antifa, the in cell movement, proud boys, where ctrl alt delhate will be disseminated. We have contacted the hubs of those communities to do so. Our grassroots intervention efforts established sufficient researchzes needed for and we will pursue other initiatives as well. We will look to for more form more partnerships. We have been networking with peace Building Communities and have put together an Impressive Team that will organize the center for the study of trauma and radicalization. We collaborated with ideas beyond borders to translate the magazines into arabic and expand our influence into the majority world. We will take back the isis newsletter to utilize the same approach. We are looking to expand into australia, canada, and western europe as well. We will engage social Media Companies and request their support promoting the helpline and making sure users looking for extremist content are provided access and pathways to the light upon light messaging hub. Light upon light itself will increase its coverage of extremist related activity. We see a communication hub and hub, an online portal that can host Grassroots Research and journalism, advanced podcasts, online videos and other media that can arm the public with information, confront polarization with coverage and commentary, and offers a worldview that creates a collective nonpolarizing commentary. We have been advocating for a governmental focus that either i focuses specifically on the intervention space, a focus that might reduce public criticism of government involvement within, and provide an alternative to sole reliance on investigation and interdiction. This might add a tool to the counterterrorism toolbox. Mechanisms for Simple Society organizations like our own to conduct targeted interventions. We put together a proposal for next year that would ultimately lead to uniformity and internal recordkeeping, advance an online course that can train and empower key interventionists with information, instruction and skills in uniform standards and communication. We want to replicate essentially the field of Substance Abuse treatment, a field that has onlved to rely former addicts and training. As for save hate, we will utilize partnerships to increase the number of shape shifters. In 2020, a volatile and contentious year, we will look to present the magazines to 15 different cities in the u. S. Particularly, we will speak and enhance awareness, educate those on the front lines, impart a better understanding of risk indicators, and in turn, expand the save hate initiative. After our visit, we will retain contact with those communities so they will know we are there to support their own localized efforts. In conclusion, we are honored to be here today. As a society, we need to effectively, altogether, pause in that space between stimulus and response to alter course and recognize that each of us does, in fact, have a role to play and ability to address the consequences of polarization, hate, and extremism. As Albert Einstein once put it, no problem has ever been solved at the same level of consciousness that created it. A seek nothing less then paradigm shift in encountering violent extremism. I look forward to these discussions. Thank you very much for joining us. [applause] now i would like to call our panelists up to the stage. I will give some quick intros. Thank you, jesse. First, mitchell silber, the ceo of parallel networks, an organization he cofounded with jesse morton. He is also a founding principal at the guardian group, and intelligence and Security Consulting firm. Prior to his work at guardian group, mitch served as director of intelligence analysis at the nypd, where he was a counterterrorism adviser to the Deputy Commissioner and was responsible for building out and managing the analytic and cyber units. Next, i have brad galloway. He is a research and intervention specialist with the organization for prevention of violence, which is based in edmonton, alberta. Recently, he joined with parallel networks and light upon light to work with va