Wednesday, February 18, 2015

trying to counter extremism at home


WaPo |  Abdisalam Adam is a public school teacher and imam from St. Paul, Minn., and a model for how the White House and U.S. law enforcement hope to avoid an American version of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. By working within local communities and with civic leaders, they aim to prevent the radicalization and recruitment of young people into extremist organizations.

But even Adam — whose work in this area will be highlighted during this week’s White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) — has to fight deep suspicions among his fellow Somalis that the government efforts are just a guise for intelligence gathering.

“Is the government sincere about this?” Adam said. “That’s a big question. The trust is not completely there.” But he added that communities such as his have little choice. “Personally, I think if it’s done right and the government’s sincere, it’s the right thing to do.” 

The three-day gathering, which has been in the works since the fall but has attracted significant attention in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and elsewhere, will launch a new U.S. framework aimed at preventing potential extremists from launching strikes in the United States or joining the fight overseas. Expanding beyond the work already underway, the White House’s approach aims to enlist the help of social-service providers and religious leaders to avert future conversions to radicalism.

Senior administration officials, speaking to reporters Monday, said that while the initiative would not end terrorist acts like those undertaken in Copenhagen and Libya in the past few days, they are part of the broader answer to such threats.

“I think we need to be realistic that this is a long-term investment,” said one official, who asked for anonymity to discuss the event in advance. “And so, ultimately, we hope to get to a place where we just have much greater resilience and greater action across communities. But that is not something we’re going to see tomorrow.”
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One of the senior administration officials said Monday that “there’s no profile that we can point to to say this person is from this community, is going to be radicalized to violence,” adding, “I think that we make a mistake as a government if we focus on stereotypes.” 

Nicholas J. Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, testified this month before the House Homeland Security Committee that these initiatives should not be “perceived as intimidating” and that several communities have responded positively to the government’s overtures.

3 comments:

CNu said...

Aside from the oil and the regional demography, a very big part of the reason it makes sense to achieve detente with Shia Islam is its stable, long-term, centralized ecclesiastical hierarchy. You can go to Tehran to meet and deal, much as you would go to the Vatican. These breath and britches, fly-by-night Sunni's are no different than evangelicals. There is no central hierarchy, just a bunch of nutjob true-believers on an evangelical missionOne problem for Sunni Islam is that it lacks a single church or spokesperson, so unlike Catholicism or the more hierarchical Shiite Islam, it can’t condemn (or endorse) anything in a categorical way. Blogger Daniel Haqiqatjou mockingly called for an iCondemn app that would allow Muslims to efficiently denounce acts of terror around the globe and reassure non-Muslims as to where they stand.

Of course, we shouldn’t hold ordinary people responsible for what violent people do in their name. Catholics should condemn the killing of an abortion doctor, but I don’t blame them for the murder if they don’t.http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-violent-extremism/2015/02/13/2dc72786-b215-11e4-827f-93f454140e2b_story.html

The simple-minded's inability to break out of the overwhelming urge to stereotype, and to concoct and conduct policy on irrational and unscientific grounds - is the single greatest political obstacle to the tactical evolution the Hon.Bro.Preznit is trying to implement. The predecessor administration had all of the methodological and technical resources at its disposal to engage these issues scientifically, but instead chose to engage on a lowest common denominator political basis - catering to the jingoism of the yahoos and dingalings comprising a significant percentage of its electoral base. George W. Bush: Mmm. Now, what's wrong, compadre? You seem down.

Joe Biden: Well, everybody says I have, like, a big mouth!

George W. Bush: Yeah?

Joe Biden: Well... it’s MY big mouth that got things done this time! Okay? Not his [ mimicking ] "careful weighing of options"!

George W. Bush: Heck! Those... those smartypants types are never going to understand speak-first guys like us.

Joe Biden: Exactly!

George W. Bush: Yeah, you know, they’re all brains.

Joe Biden: Yeah.

George W. Bush: You and me? We’re all gut and balls.

Joe Biden: Yeah!

George W. Bush: Yeah.

Joe Biden: Yeah!

George W. Bush: Every decision I ever made happened between my belly button and the middle of my thighs.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/360884

CNu said...

Watch live on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJcIC7VGhTI

woodensplinter said...

It appears that in the esoteric circle of rulership in Israel, one is entitled to spending public funds like waterFood costs at the Israeli prime minister’s residence more than doubled after Benjamin Netanyahu took office in 2009, reaching nearly $120,000 in 2012, a third of it in takeout meals. The state paid about $2,000 a month to clean the Netanyahus’ private home in the seaside town of Caesarea, though the family spent most of its time in Jerusalem.

A report published Tuesday by Israel’s state comptroller said these and other expenses — including $68,000 over two years in makeup, hairstyling and “presentation” for Mr. Netanyahu and his wife, Sara — “strayed from the cornerstone principles of financial management and the principles of proportionality,
reasonableness, saving and efficiency.”

Noting that Mrs. Netanyahu had reimbursed state coffers $1,035 after she was found to have pocketed the deposit money from recycled beverage bottles,
the comptroller, Joseph Haim Shapira, said he had handed his investigative material over to the attorney general because it raised “suspicion of a criminal act.”

“This is public money, and the law for a penny is the law for 100,” Mr. Shapira said in the introduction to the 36-page report. “Public trust in government institutions is the foundation stone of every democratic regime.”http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/world/middleeast/israeli-inquiry-faults-netanyahus-over-expenses.html

Master Arbitrageur Nancy Pelosi Is At It Again....,

🇺🇸TUCKER: HOW DID NANCY PELOSI GET SO RICH? Tucker: "I have no clue at all how Nancy Pelosi is just so rich or how her stock picks ar...