Foreign Fighters: preventative action (UK mainly)

[davidbfpo]

Which led to a CT investigation, with two young B'ham men being charged with terrorism in Syria; in part:

Yusuf Sarwar .. and Nahin Ahmed ... both aged 22 - pleaded guilty to preparing for acts of terrorism, at Woolwich Crown Court today.

In May last year the men purchased one-way tickets to Turkey and later went on to cross the Syrian border. When they returned to the UK after eight months away, officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit were waiting at Heathrow to arrest them.

Traces of military grade explosives were found on their clothing and pictures on their camera showed them brandishing weapons. Detectives used satellite imaging to establish from the photographs that the men had been in and around Aleppo - one of the main conflict zones.

Link:http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/l...s.aspx?id=1214

[davidbfpo]

Rachel Briggs of the London-based think tank, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), has studied counter-radicalisation for a long time and blogs occassionally.

Her blog 'Foreign fighters in Syria: the rise of women and the challenge of prevention' appears to be UK-orientated, but has a wider application in Europe and maybe beyond. Especially over the absence of a counter-narrative:http://rachelbriggs.wordpress.com/20...of-prevention/

Readers will be familiar with my viewpoint that there is no counter-narrative, so now here is Rachel, with my emphasis:

There is also an urgent need to compete with violent extremists for the attention of our young people. Extensive social media analysis conducted by my team at ISD reveals that there is almost no counter-narrative activity occurring online. There is no shortage of talk at expensive international conferences about the need for counter-narratives, but there is very little action. Governments are on safe and familiar ground funding meetings, but struggle to get effective counter-messaging campaigns signed off by risk-averse Ministers.

She cites some private work, have a peek - it is for a young Muslim audience:http://www.youtube.com/user/abdullahx

[davidbfpo]

A private group whose sons have left to fight in Syria:

Families matter because they are torn apart when young people travel to Syria and Iraq. Families make a difference because they have the power to reach out and stop this. All families should feel empowered to reach out if they are worried about a loved one who might be thinking of travelling to the region.

We believe families are not alone. That’s why we’ve made a short film with three people talking openly about the impact of a family member travelling. They each speak of the pain and anguish they felt when their loved one left the UK. It’s hard for us to convey the heartbreak, which is why we let them speak for themselves.

Link to website, the 9 minute video is there:http://www.familiesmatter.org.uk/

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to WoTR for the article 'The Dangerous Nexus Between Radicalism in Britain and Syria’s Foreign Fighters', the author Roger Farhat, a private sector analyst:http://warontherocks.com/2014/08/the...eign-fighters/

[davidbfpo]

As the UK debates what next, with some frankly bizarre proposals, an academic who has watched has a column:http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...sation-britons

Instead, government focus needs to be upon enabling the messy, unpredictable and contingent “dirty work” of local counter-terrorism on the ground, and learning the lessons about what works and what doesn’t from recent experience. This reflects what we know from a growing body of research about the radicalisation process....In sum, what the more successful police forces had worked out was that soft power was more effective in solving problems than an over-reliance on the hard power of coercive law enforcement. It is this understanding that should be developed.

[davidbfpo]

Alyas Karmani, a British Muslim based in Bradford, Yorkshire has long been involved in counter-radicalisation and was interviewed in The Independent on Sunday. He starts with:

What the recent events in Syria show is the abject failure of a counter-messaging and counter-narrative strategy – it just isn't there. We've been talking about this de-radicalisation strategy for many years and yet there's nothing in place.

(Later) Prevent is a tainted brand and a failed strategy; you can't keep on giving life to something which is fundamentally broken. It is disproportionate in that is focuses on Muslim extremism. Prevent is defunct now as far as I'm concerned. It has no credibility whatsoever.

Prevent being part of the UK national CT strategy.

Link:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...m-9687897.html

[davidbfpo]

A short article by Professor Andrew Silke, whilst it may apply beyond the UK his focus and examples are British:

A rather sharp passage:

We have to be realistic about how effective it is going to be. There has never been an equivalent programme, for example, for the IRA or other paramilitary groups. And part of the reason is people don’t think it will work for the IRA. But they think it may work on Jihadis because there has been some success in countries like Saudi Arabia.

This week both David Cameron and Ed Miliband have referred to extending counter-radicalisation schemes - with mandatory participation = so this comment is noteworthy:

But one of the key issues of these programmes is they are voluntary. You can’t force people to do it and one third of prisoners referred to the Healthy Identities Programme have refused to take part