Aware, our group cep is an Education Research and Advocacy Organization working to combat extremism worldwide. In addition to researching extremist entities and their ideologies and formulating, developing and implementing counter radicalization programs, communities around the world, cep also works to pressure, expose with hopes of degrading extremist financial and communication networks. An online and Internet Networks in particular. This part of of the work in the online space has been a continuous importance to us as our organization haso grown. The reason is extremist continued to demonstrate their ability to successfully misuse and weaponizing internet to radicalize, recruit and inspired acts of terrorism with tragic results and we seen this very recently, unfortunately, in the case of the hollowing attacker in manhattan when he was apprehended yet almost 4000 images on his phone. 90 videos of isis material on his phone including material that directed how to use a a tk or vehicle as a weapon of terror. Ic similarly who killed 22la people in manchester, england, following the concert tragically was helped in part by instructional videos they found online and how to build a body found on youtube. Through our research we found some of the same content is Still Available on youtube a full two months after the attack occurred. Were seeing progress being made just recently did it in the times was a long story about how youtube has finally acetic advance from Civil Society, counterterrorism professionals, pressure from the government and decided to move completely material from Anwar Alawlaki, americanborn notorious aqap alqaeda Arabian Peninsula claire to inspired and has connections to dozens and dozens of attacks. Our guests today willac discuss these issues in the merida challenges posed by extremists operating online and also discuss how private sector, government and society can respond. Ca ill also add the issues we will discuss today, the misuse of Technology Platforms by hostile actors, hostilell foreign actor, private sector accountability and responsibility and the changing perception of Silicon Valley towards Silicon Valley amongst policy practitioners, the media, the public generally resonate beyond extremism and terrorism and to touch upon a number of different kind of issue context and policy context. So we hope it will be informative to you if youre interested in illicit conduct online, elicit conversation online, accountability in the private sector or just issues related to Free Expression and free speech of the digital age. Before we get started and before we welcome our distinguished line of expert into probably begin todays program its a pleasure to welcome some of his legislative career has been devoted to protecting u. S. Citizen. Senatorte ron johnson was electd to the senate in 2010. Hes the chairman of Settlement Security and Governmental Affairs committee. He served as Ranking Member of the Committee Subcommittee on government oversight and federal contracting oversight. Senator johnson serves on the committees on the budget, commerce, science and transportation and foreign relations. B prior to being elected, he worked at a polyester and plastics Manufacturing Business which you could run in 1979. Senators johnson received an accounting degree from university of minnesota and is a proud father of three o children who reside in Oshkosh Wisconsin with his wife jane. Please welcome senator ron johnson. It [applause] thank you, david, i thank you all for coming here. Good afternoon. Really do want, do appreciate this counter extremism project pickett is extremely important. I think youre raising incredibly important issues, serious issues, things were really need to discuss as a society. For myss part opening the conference here is rather than steal the thunder of excellent gas, the type of people we would call in indoor committee and pick the brains and get information id like to provide a slightly broader perspective. Im chairman of the helmet security Government Affairs committee. I come from the business background. So first the engine when it took over that chairmanship is we develop a a mission statement, established goals. The statements presented to enhance the economic and National Security of america. We established four goals on Homeland Security side of the committee, border security, cybersecurity, are critical of such which is an awful lot of cybersecurity, and encountering violet extremist about what the origin. We focus an awful lot of time and attention and really in congress yes, we write legislation, its hard to get it passed, i really view my primary role as chairman of the committee as to hold the hearings, bringingol people like doctor freed and Frances Townsend and peter bergen, the experts on the subject matter to do a problemsolving process, define the problem,vi provide information, try and establish achievable goals and so thats what ive been trying to do and we held a hearing just last week. This was a confirmation hearing for help will be the next secretary of Homeland Security. One of the things it did in the hearing is i just laid out starting with the sikh temple shooting in oak creek wisconsin. 20 different mass murders. It was a pretty depressing list. It ended of course with novembes were 26 individuals, 26 holes were lost, 20 individuals wounded. In that 20 list for the list of 20 incidents, 262 souls were lost over 1000 people wounded. Later that night november 5 i was with my i family, my daughtr just asked the question think were asking ourselves, whats happening . Why is it happening . What can we do about it . Now, these are not very easy questions to answer whatsoever. President obama, lets face it, had a fair amount of criticism when he compared terrorism to casualty counts to other things. For example, overdoses. By the way thats a huge problem in this nation, a growing crisis, 64,000 deaths last year, gun deaths, 38,000, about twothirds due to suicide. Auto accident 37,000. I just kicked off a list of 20 dating back a number of years. Why do we concentrate so much time and effort on those acts of terrorism when lets face it the body count is so much lower . I would argue the reason we devote that much time and attention, the other deaths are part of life. They dont threaten to shut down lets say our economy. Remember after Charlie Hebdo and other terrorist attacks in france, the city of brussels shut down not because theres a fierce attack, just because the threat of a terrorist attack. And so what is happening in this world, the evolution of primarily islamist terror but lets face it, in those, the list of 20 attacks, they were homegrown terroristic user people either inspired copycats. Not always tied to islamic terror, but what is so concerned about islamic terror is that its reaching a new phase. I often takes a look at islamic terrorism from the viewpoint of phases. We had the pre9 11. You could almost date it back to the attack on the olympic from palestinians. But specifically alqaeda type attacks began really in the mid\90{l1}s{l0}\90{l1}s{l0} when they tried to bring down the twin towers and killed about six people, i think injured close to 1000. With the 9 11 happened and we had the post9 11 wars in afghanistan and iraq. And then of course the rise of isis after we foolishly bugged out of iraq, declared victory and let isis to rise from the ashes of what was included defeated alqaeda in iraq. We finally defeated the physical caliphate. They are a doom operation but the caliphate is a physical entity is pretty well over. A year ago in our threat hearing fbi director, fbi director talked about a diaspora, spreading of terrorists around the world. In our last threat hearing the current fbi director and Nick Rasmussen the head of the direct of the National Counterterrorism center said the diaspora is not as severe as we thought it was. There were a lot of they fought and died which is a good thing. But recently at a hearing at the Senate Foreign relations as chairman corker pointed out, we have troops in 19re Different Countries where that threat exists. So alqaeda, isis, islamic terror has spread. It is evolved, metastasized. And were entering this new phase certainly demonstrated by isis whether using social media and incredibly sophisticated, effective ways. One of the reasons i was critical of the obama administration, the number president obama after fallujah fell, referred to isis as the jv team, then about six months later mosul fell and was all those axonal barbarism during 2014. The fact that we did not immediately put all of our effort into defeating isis and ending that caliphate, that territory everyday, the caliphate existed, ever date it wasnt losing, it was perceived as winning and it was gaining more and more adherent online and inspiring them through social media. That is i think what our realities did. That is the phase were in right now. As isis has spread to these 19 countries were with true presence and probably beyond, and heather social mediaia platforms set up. They will continue to inspire. The question is what do we do about it . Let me just give some basic direction. First of all we had to end that caliphate. Weve done that. We must address the recruitment, the incitement, the training of social media and thats really what this conference is all about and you will hear some experts on what we need to do. We have to have a rational Legal Immigration system, realize the people we allowing this country and gain permanent residency, we have to submit them. One thing america does that it probably then france and belgium we do assimilate. Immigrants in this country better but we have to ask ourselves the pharisees question, how many can we accept . How many can we assimilate . In the nation must, in addition, any sovereign nation has to secure its border, has to control immigration. But assimilation is key. I do want to quote a philosopher karl proper in 1945 described the paradox of tolerance picky said unlimited tolerance mostly to the dispute of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those were not intolerant, it were not prepared to defend aot Tolerant Society againstt the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed and tolerance with them. America is a very Tolerant Society but we value that. Almost above anything else our freedom, our liberty, our compassion and are tolerance but in this new era, in this new phase with this new threat of National Security and weac realy need to ask yourself the research questions. You will hear this on a panel , we dont allow child pornography on the end of your it is legal to download it. Yet we allow how to guide books, to create a bomb, how to buy a truck, the right truck to buy with two wheels in the back axles when you run someone down you have a greater chance of killing that individual. These are question our society has to ask, how much can we really tolerate, m understand tt paradox of tolerance if we tolerate too much . Are tolerance itself will be ended. Its vital that we improve our intelligence gathering capabilities. Our first line of defense against violent extremism whether its homegrown or foreignborn is a robust, effective intelligence gathering capability. Together with strong alliances we can show that intelligence. We cant be all places at all time. I realized what we would Start Talking about intelligence gathering we Start Talking about Civil Liberties. In a free society, you always have that delicate balance between Civil Liberties and security. And, unfortunately, i would have toto argue today the focal point of that delicate balance has got to tip towards security or again we will lose our society. There were no longer be tolerance. One thing we have to be prepared to do is be relentless in our pursuit and destruction of violent extremists. I met you one of the huge strategic blunders of the last demonstration was bugging out of iraq, the claim victory, like isis to rise again creating that additional threat. We cant afford to do that anymore. One of the things we discussed is authorization for use of military force under this new threat. I want to quick read the three that are at stake right now. Currently where operating under the authorization for use of military force signed into law september 18, 2011 pick seven days after 9 11. This is an authorization that works. It reached the president is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate u force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines, heres the problem, he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on september 11 or harbored such organizations or persons. I think he can that authorization, i certainly dont come to the conclusion that applies today. But some lawyer sommer said it did, and by president s it does. Now, precedents. Without debate whether we had a new aumf. The problem integrating a new one is apparently we dont have enough votes to pass one that will actually get the commanderinchief the ability to be tenacious and relentless and actually achieve victory. Let me read you another effective authorization for use of military force. This would be a declaration of war. This is what Congress Passed first on december 8, 1941 against japan and the december 11, 841 against germany. This is declaration of war. The president is hereby authorized and directed to avoid the entire naval and military force of the United States and the resource of the government to carry on war against, in this case japan, and to bring the conflict to successful termination, all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the congress of the United States. Thats called an all out effort and i would argue in this phase, this generational struggle, this generation war that were in we need that kind of all out authorization declaration. Now, in february 2015, again take a look at the 2001 authorization and say it doesnt apply to the situation. There was a debate in congress. The problem is the authorization the administration requested simply wasnt that type of relentless, tenacious request for an authorization. Let me read it to you the president is offer subject to the limitations in subsection c that doesnt sound like an allout declaration, does it . To use armed forces of the United States necessary and appropriate against isil or associate persons or process defined in section five. By the way, that definition is quite good. See limitations. The authority granted in subsection a dozen authorized use of United States armed forces entering offensive Ground Combat, Ground Combat operations. The only reason fiscal caliphate is over is because this president used ground troops, not a whole lot of them, thousands, not tens of thousands, but gave the commanders on the field the authority to end the caliphate, and its been ended. So again its extremely important not to hamstring any Administration Whether its republican or democrat, the commanderinchief in action the winning a war. Finally, we must rebuild our military. I want to quick show you a little chart. This is the history of United States spending on defense. Kind of looks all downhill race, doesnt it . On what to give the actual stats on this because its interesting what we continue to do to the finest among us in terms of providing military support. In the 70s we averaged about 5 of our gdp for defense spending. It was a high of about 7. 6 under Richard Nixon after jimmy carter to administer down to about 4. 4 . In the. In the 80s we averaged about 5. 5 pick that range from 4. 7 under carter a put carter of the output of 6 under reagan. We ended the cold war, so during the 90s that was the peace dividend, the into future we went from about 5 under george h. W. Bush to 2. 8 under bill clinton. The 9 11 occurred, so then in this decade, elastic and we averaged about 3. 9 , a high, low of 2. 9 to a high of 4. 6 . And, of course, we declared the war over in iraq, and once again we started hollowing our military to leicester we spent 3. 2 . In 2016, 2017 2017 the best ese is about 3. 1 . We are not devoting the Natural Resources we need to defend our nation, to keep the homeland safe. This is all within the context of the fact that Neither Party is seriously taking, seriously addressing whatt i consider the number oneum threat, admiral mot of the same thing, the number one threat to our National Security is our debt and deficit. We are 22 ago and that took over the next 30 years it is projected will run another late 100, 129 million with deficit. How can we spend enough on military when we are already in debt over our heads . We have got to start getting serious about addressing the fact that we are mortgaging our kids future. Let me in on that note. Because i i wanted to broaden s discussion. My daughter asked that question, what can we do about this . Why is this occurring . Whats happening . I was in High School Just on friday and i had one of the senior girls as alm