I.S. THREAT IN PHL | Counterprop, As-Pac cooperation needed: US official

From InterAksyon (Aug 28): I.S. THREAT IN PHL | Counterprop, As-Pac cooperation needed: US official

US Department of State Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Justin Siberell cannot confirm whether or not the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group is already in the Philippines, but he proposes measures to respond to this “global challenge”.

In a conference call from Washington D.C. to reporters in Asia-Pacific on Friday morning, Siberell said, “IS has a history of associating itself or attaching itself to pre-existing terror organizations.”

IS did this, he said, with the Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis group in Sinai, Egypt; and the Boko Haram group in Nigeria. Closer to home, there was the Katibah Nusantara, a group of fighters in Syria which has been luring individuals across Southeast Asia.

Siberell said that IS would identify existing terrorist organizations, then associates with them or getts them to pledge allegiance to IS. The rise of new IS affiliates is a concern, he acknowledged.

Bali consensus

In the Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf had been active even before the 9/11 attacks in the United States in 2001. It is “vital” to address this threat, and Siberell assured the reporters that governments were cooperating across the region in this regard.

During his visit to Bali, Indonesia for a ministerial meeting on countering the cross-border movement of terrorism, there were discussions that the concerned  governments would work on the following:

· making adjustments to counter-terrorism legislation, specifically those that would criminalize travelling to join a conflict and contributing to a terrorist group fighting in a conflict, and that would criminalize recruitment into or preparations for terrorist groups;

· improving information-sharing, particularly about the identities of known or suspected terrorists;

· implementing stronger border security measures; and

· undertaking counter-recruitment and counter-radicalization efforts.

The conflict in Syria and Iraq has attracted fighters from around the world, including Southeast Asia.  In all, Siberell reported, over 40,000 individuals from 120 countries have traveled already to these conflict zones.

He praised Indonesia for its “strong-rule-of-law framework” in counter-terrorism, which began with good legislation, coupled with the use of the court system to prosecute terrorism suspects and gain convictions.

But the challenge to Indonesia – as well as to many other nations – was that prisons themselves became locations for further radicalization.

Research on radicalization's roots, counterprop

According to Siberell, the US military found that to address the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in particular, they needed to strengthen their efforts “in the counter-messaging, counter-narrative area.”

“ISIL was, at one point, almost unopposed in the social media sphere in being able to propagandize, to draw attention to its attacks,” Siberell said, pointing to the “horrific” images of beheadings and killings proliferating on social media sites.

In response, the US government created the Global Engagement Center, whose tasks included partnering with government and non-government to develop counter-narratives and boost communication against ISIL.

He praised the Malaysian government for its similar initiative, a “counter-messaging center”.

Siberell said research must be done on the root causes of radicalization, and resources must be put into this.

It was important to find out “what might be driving recruitment in the terrorist organizations, what might be the factors that are contributing to the receptivity of individuals to messages and recruitment messages from terrorist organizations.”

Another component was improved information-sharing among the countries, especially on the identity of known and suspected terrorists “so that border security personnel have available to them all of the information that would help them prevent known and suspected terrorists from crossing borders.”

Shared database

US President Barack Obama launched a project this year to help governments connect to the Interpol and its database of 8,000 foreign terrorist fighters. Many countries were now sharing information with that database, and the US now had bilateral information-sharing agreements with more than 55 countries.

For the Philippines, in particular, the US was now helping beef up the former's response to kidnap-for-ransom cases, given that kidnap-for-ransom was a critical source of income for the Abu Sayyaf, as in other terrorist organizations.

Siberell said that the US was looking forward to an exchange of expertise, especially the good practices that governments could adopt.

http://interaksyon.com/article/131877/i-s--threat-in-phl--counter-propaganda-as-pac-cooperation-needed---us-official