Returning foreign fighters. Held by the Washington Institute, this is an hour and a half. Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to the Washington Institute for mideast policy. Im not let it, i directed the program on counterterrorism and intelligence at the institute and im pleased to welcome you all for the latest in our stein counterterrorism lecture series. Today were going to discuss islamic terrorism in the west and we have a fantastic panel for you. We will start with dick schoof who served as National Coordinator for security and counterterrorism in the netherlands since spring 2013. His responsibility for crisis management, Cyber Security and related efforts and briefly served as director general of the police force and played a role in creating European Unions roadmap to information sharing. We then have some comments by myself and by my two friends from colleagues, muhammad fraserrahim and Farah Pandith. Mohammed is the new executive director for north america for the londonbased Counter Extremism Group the quillam foundation, quillam international. He spent several years in Us Government service including a post at the Counterterrorism Center and the department of Homeland Security. He is finalizing his phd at Howard University focusing on muslim communities in the west. And if i may, congratulations on submitting the dissertation this morning. Been there, done that. Thats pretty moment us. Thank you very much. [applause] farah and i go back a ways so i need to behave because she could tell stories about me. She is an author and policy strategist in the field of encountering violent extremism during the obama administration. She was the first ever special representative of muslim communities. She served at the state department in other capacities including working for dan tweed on europe. She served as National Security council at the state department in the george w. Bush administration. Im pleased and honored to be sharing a podium with three of you. We will start with the prepared remarks and then i will moderate a question and answer session for the rest of our time. The podium is yours, but you very much. I forgot, ive lead by example and show off my phone. If you could do the same, that would be wonderful. Thank you. Gentlemen, we have seen brutal attacks in brussels, paris, berlin, stockholm. Again, two weeks ago in london. United states has seen serious attacks as well. New york, boston, san bernardino,florida. What we see is the modus operandi of the attacks. The number of casualties differ. And the terrorists differ. Some of the attacks are directed and organized from outside our country. Others are committed by homegrown actors, people from our own neighborhood inspired by the social media. Yet the attack has one crucial factor. Fear. The attackers what to create fear. They want to intimidate our ordinary people. To prevent people from going to a nightclub. To prevent people from manchester from going to a concert. Prevent people from new york to amsterdam from taking a bus to work. In short, preventing some people from living their lives and by so doing undermine our democratic and open society. A dutch researcher used the word fear as a metaphor to describe terrorism. The theater of fear, he called it. Terrorists want the public, the audience regardless of the time and place, to create fear as the main driver. And i think hes right. The plot and the drive remain the same but the players differ. To effectively intervene means having to know the communities they grow up in. It means we have to know the local organizations that means we have to know which side of social media that are being used to influence youngsters. It also means extending the independent ideology that is a perversion, sectarian version of islam. In short, we have to Work Together at the local level and the National Level in cyber and real life and of course across the border. The question is often posed to me as National Coordinator for security of counterterrorism these days is why is the netherlands not yet been hit by any attack . Your intelligence and Police Service are effective, are your local Community Partners successful . Ladies andgentlemen, yes they are. But the terrorist threat facing the netherlands resembled the threat facing the west rest of western europe. The threat on the netherlands is real. As real as anyother country in western europe. That is why we have set our threat level at attention , four out of five which means an attack is immediate. To say we have the most effective insulation to protect people or the best intelligence and therefore we escape an attack would be close to an attack on the dell. I would like to emphasize the attack in the netherlands and the countries around us in the uk, in germany, in belgium, in france is very much complete. Stopping terrorists encountering violent extremism to keep a priority for the netherlands. We take a comprehensive approach which includes dissension as well as oppression. And approach which includes reaching out to the local partners and connecting with local communities. The approach which includes legal instruments such as revoking a potential terrorist portal or nationality. But before going into more detail about our approach, let me share some figures about the current threat in the netherlands and europe. In europe and the netherlands, we are faced with a complex threat picture. Its complex and diffuse then a few years ago. More than ever before we have to deal with different kinds of terrorists. Using several ways of attacking communications. Some well prepared, some using simple modus operandi and aiming at a large variety of targets. We assess the threat posed by isis is a key factor in the threat to the west. Here through planned attacks for by fire. But also we remain capable and his intent to commit terrorist attacks in the west and against attackers abroad. Domestically, far from the reaction to the nearest terrorist threat we see an increase rising extremism and in response about again, so the attention in our society is growing. As i mentioned before, the threat level for the netherlands remains substantial meaning we consider the attack to be real, there are no specific indications that attack is being prepared. The attacks in brussels, paris, berlin, manchester and london show us the work of terrorists does not stop at national borders. Terrorists ignoreborders , from one country to the other by train or by car. Audio influence the Jihadist Networks and individual fighters residing in other countries or regions. To give you a number, in europe we are told of an estimated 4000 terrorist fighters from a population of 750 million people. But we also see homegrown terrorists, those who did not settle to the isis territory but stayed in the plan to carry out terrorist attacks. Another development is one of the biggest spaces, while isis is losing territory, and importantly this does not diminish the threat of attacks against the west over the longer term. The threat is sustainable. Because of the setbacks on the battlefield, his level of cynicism is even increasing. Now that isis is losing ground, there is significant chance that more jihadists will return or move to other areas. Members will differ for each state and for the netherlands, its a realistic scenario that they wont return all at once but over an extended period. The threat is also constantly evolving, getting even more complex because isis is renewing itself, organizing. It has fighters using drones that expose it in europe but we also see isis getting more professional online. Initially jihadists were using social media like facebook, youtube and traitor to recruit for its latest posts. Without bob the same social media platforms we are able to greatly reduce the spread of propaganda on the internet. As the reaction terrorists rooted two more darker spaces on the world wide web. But it also used communicating, they also used communicating to lower potential recruits young and old by means of telecom in lockstep. Making it harder for us to detect and easier for praying. Facing these challenges, how do we in the netherlands counterterrorism and extremism . Based on our experience and effectiveness over the years we decided on a number of Strategic Principles that together form the main pillars of our National Counterterrorism strategy. Our approach is threatbased and comprehensive. Our approach recognizes the interconnectedness between international and domestic actors and is aimed at both networks and individuals. Let me elaborate on the principle of apprehensive miss. The comprehensiveness means focusing on preventative and suppressive measures. That we start by prevention, countering violent extremism. Is that no one is born a e terrorists. People, youngsters become terrorists from the influence of others either through the internet or in their own neighborhood. Clearly through identification, intervention are key to preventing and combating radicalization. In order to do so local and National Authorities and otherorganizations work closely together. The Society Organizations and communities are an important part, a recent policy note by the Washington Institute agrees with us. That in order to defeat ideology inspired violent extremismand the involvement of the local community is key. If im putting correctly. In the case of the netherlands, one of the organizations for local worth your picks up radicalization, he or she is discussed in a socalled Case Management team. In these teams, police and members of local government and an office share information with personal concern both of those in the netherlands and those from terrorist organizations. Depending on me that it picks up the case, members of the production board in the case of Mental Health or Rehabilitation Services may join this Case Management. In this setting, they will make interventions awaiting any post on the individual level. Again for example, we decide to give the extra support. And in case of youngsters we can initiatechild protection issues , this may be that the minor is taken away from the child and into the care of a local authority. We can initiate a process of having someones passport , or initiate the process for taking preventative measures to contact them. Then regarding repression. We just mentioned that no one is born a terrorists but when someone becomes one, we will act on it. We have successfully implemented a set of measures to effectively combat terrorism. Recently these laws entered into force that expand government efforts to combat terrorism. And in the interest of National Security it is for example possible to revoke someones citizenship in case of nationality. Another measure is to impose a periodic report or exclusion restraining order for certain higher notifications for international airports. This can be enforced by electronic monitoring. And also recording, returning foreign terrorist fighters, we have set measures we can take. Those who return are immediately arrested. They will then question possible prosecution on the basis of criminal investigation. At the same time, we must make an assessment of the threat is posed by each revenue. What is the reason why some are returned, if we will continue his or her flight from within, they are likely to plan an attack. Based on these questions and others it is decided with interventions are best suited to minimize potential threats. Some measures such as presenting an alternative to pretrial retention offer a simple a reporting duty the restraining order and dissolution order. We cannot prosecute someone when we think someone still poses a threat to authorities that we keep in check. Let me make one more point. The importance of communication. We believe that an open and Effective Communication about current threats are developments around the public is extremely important. We believe in sharing our threat analysis four times a year. We make more aware and able to create likeminded about a threat. We think that we become more capable of dealing with the news and the horrifying pictures we receive on the internet. We are aware of course that this open way of communication might raise questions. We recently kept a lecture on the Free University in amsterdam and one of the students asked me why my organization had warned about a sign relating to terrorism regarding them and we took a lot of message around. We heard about this sign, he had been an offense but since you heard about warning, he felt concerned. We were able to enjoy the a suit for security reasons. My answer to her question about why we werent is the National Security coordinator on counterterrorism, i gave an assessment and want to be as open as possible. Not to create fear but to be realistic and in order to create a mindset to help people and our main messages we cannot guarantee that an attack will not happen but we will say we do everything we can to prevent them and we actually will do. We do not want people to be paranoid but we do want people to be, not to be 90 either. We do not want to create fear but we do want people to be alert. Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude. I started by telling the attacks, both our consonants have had to endure. We share a number of the same problems. Problems from washington dc and children from those neighborhood might come in contact with, they might be inspired by the internet. As a policy note from the Washington Institute indicates we need to get ahead of the curve. And let me add that we are together to change perspectives from our experience and let us relearn , thank you very much. [applause] good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Ill make a few remarks as long as we have about two minutes. Five minutes, so first and foremost, i want to thank the Washington Institute for policy and particularly matt letter is a good friend as relates to working these very complex issues that we are all trying tomake sense of. And i also wanted to highlight the role particularly with us, we are not in north america and i am the new north american executive director and our particularly is addressed specifically to counter extremism. I think its important that we highlighted that up front. Our experts from experiences gained in the field, former islamists themselves who have reformed themselves and now have gone down the path of promoting pluralism in the western democracies they live in across the atlantic, certainly in the uk and elsewhere. I wanted to start off with a few over watching points and then we will move forward and try to capture that and we will have time for q a. I would say that like my colleague mentioned, extremists are adapting and learning more than ever. Ive seen the evolution of a largescale tax to low technology, high impact terrorism. We seen the evolution of groups that carry out extreme religious priorities and based on open source reporting, the drugs like terminal, a painkiller used by isis fighters to increase their resilience is being used more so. In addition it important to look at the research and literature on the impact these groups have had on the west itself. Something worthy to continue to provide Evidence Based Research in this field in particular according to the Pew Research Center found that 45 percent of the Muslim American community earn less than 30,000 a year, this figure is close to the legal poverty line. These numbers demystify stereotypes attributed to Muslim Americans. The fact that 45 percent are poor or workingclass. And conflicts with the Muslim Community is solely wealthy immunity and that though sometimes muslims are labeled as terrorists, Muslim Americans are a minority compared to the muslim diaspora in europe. What does this mean, what populations are being radicalized and does extremism correlate to poverty or are they factors to be involved, ill leave that open for now but its something to consider. First and foremost based on the title to these briefings is terrorism in the west, and want to conflate violent extremism with muslim beliefs. By as a practicing muslim myself observing ramadan was trained in academics institutions in the us and in islamic theological centers throughout the us and syria and some into molly, i see firsthand, we must be precise when we describe this threat that weare talking about. For definitional purposes and from our optics, this is a worldview, its a value system. It simply is by 1. 5 million muslims in the world, a belief practiced by muslims who are the first ones who came to the us and practice their faith and write in georgetown washington dc we have the arm and in georgetown and his picture is now in the american portrait gallery so there is a legacy and experience of american muslims being here from the beginning. Islamism is a political ideology that supports a draconian interpretation of islam that is narrow, rick rigid, strict and realistic. This has modern manifestations through the world. There are outer manifestations and they vary. Some of these groups are gateways types groups to larger and more Brutal Terrorist Organization like gateway drugs and if left unchecked and lead down the path of extremism. Groups like hq, al qaeda, out shabbat and isis. The islamic ideology combined with everyone may have different viewpoints on this but the point is idealistic ideology combined with theology reads the modern manifestation of jihadist and, this internet social movement now has preachers and em