{"id":18826,"date":"2015-03-05T14:30:21","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T03:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=18826"},"modified":"2015-03-05T18:35:34","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T07:35:34","slug":"ct-scan-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/ct-scan-3\/","title":{"rendered":"CT Scan"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>This week\u2019s update includes CCTV for Australian schools, British extremism, China\u2019s CT laws, the FBI\u2019s online fight against IS, white supremacy, and inside the mind of a terrorist.<\/p>\n Australian schools categorised as being at risk of racially- or religiously-motivated attacks could have security guards and closed-circuit TVs as part of an\u00a0$18 million investment in the Schools Security Program announced<\/a> by Justice Minister Michael Keenan this week. For some Jewish schools, rising anti-Semitism has made those measures necessary<\/a>. In other Australian developments, the Iraqi city of Mosul in Iraq has been added to the list<\/a> of banned travel locations under last year\u2019s Foreign Fighters laws<\/a>\u2014you can travel there but only for a \u2018legitimate\u2019 purpose. And finally, the inquiry into the metadata retention bill culminated in a bipartisan report<\/a> released last Friday, recommending that the bill requiring telecommunications companies to keep certain data for two years be passed with increased oversight mechanisms.<\/p>\n Meanwhile in the UK, British extremism has come under the microscope. The identification of \u2018Jihadi John\u2019<\/a> as Mohammed Emwazi and revelations that he was known to MI5 since 2009 have fuelled fierce debate<\/a> about MI5\u2019s CT strategies (see discussion\u00a0here<\/a> and here<\/a>). Most controversially, advocacy group CAGE\u2019s research director Asim Qureshi described<\/a> Emwazi as a \u2018beautiful young man\u2019 and claimed MI5 harassment had contributed to his radicalisation. Such statements attracted fierce condemnation, including from Prime Minister David Cameron <\/a>\u00a0and Mayor of London Boris Johnson<\/a>. CAGE subsequently released an email trail<\/a> and an audio interview<\/a> between it and Emwazi detailing his descent into radicalisation, including the statement that \u20189\/11 was wrong\u2019. Emwazi\u2019s identification also prompted an inquiry<\/a> into schools previously attended by British foreign fighters and a debate about the adequacy of British CT policies<\/a>, including the use of biometrics. See Defense One<\/em>\u2019s story<\/a> for more on biometrics and CT.<\/p>\n In the Asia-Pacific, China is in the midst of drafting wide-ranging CT laws<\/a> that step up intelligence gathering and sharing. Reforms include requirements that all tech firms install \u2018backdoors\u2019 and provide both communications records and encryption keys to law-enforcement agencies. Xinhua <\/em>indicated that the law sought to balance CT and human rights<\/a>, as \u2018global terrorism should not be a warrant for retreat on citizens\u2019 rights\u2019. But Reuters<\/em>\u2019 Michael Martina and Krista Hughes report<\/a> that the laws may compromise the security and privacy of data of anyone engaged in business with China. President Obama\u00a0believes<\/a> the law must be changed if China wants \u2018to do business with the United States\u2019. See here<\/a> for China\u2019s response.<\/p>\n Turning now to Islamic State, the FBI has conceded that it\u2019s \u2018losing the battle\u2019<\/a> against the online allure of the extremist organisation. Whilst the United States had produced \u2018an effective counter-narrative\u2026the sheer volume (of Islamic State\u2019s online messaging) eclipses our effort\u2019. Writing on Defense One<\/em>, Simon Cottee argues<\/a> that IS\u2019s videos of \u2018shock and gore\u2019 have the advantage over official US counter-narratives of \u2018mock and bore\u2019. Further, IS has a large online network of \u2018fanboys\u2019<\/a> and an emotionally poignant narrative (\u2018Muslims are being killed\u2019) that current counter-narratives lack.<\/p>\n Can other fields offer useful insights into developing deradicalisation strategies? In Canada, reformed white-supremacist Daniel Gallant drew on his experiences<\/a> in the recently-launched online Islamic State deradicalisation program, \u2018Extreme Dialogue<\/a>\u2019. The program targets school children at risk of radicalisation by Islamic State, through providing online resources including short films and educational resources:<\/p>\n The common denominator is that both (Islamic state and white supremacist) narratives include conspiracy theory about Zionism, that there\u2019s a specific group of Jewish people that are controlling the world\u2026What we\u2019re seeing with the ISIS and the jihadist-type narrative currently is almost like a replication of the stuff that was going in the 80s and 90s\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ever delved into the mind of a violent extremist? Aimen Dean, a founding member of al Qaeda who switched to becoming a British spy, documents his experiences in this BBC interview<\/a>. <\/em>Similarly, former Islamic extremist and now chairman of the CT organisation Quilliam<\/a>, Maajid Nawaz identified alienation and \u2018charismatic recruiters\u2019 as crucial radicalisation risk factors in this NPR podcast (4mins)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lastly, for some weekend reading, Anita McKonea reviewed<\/a>\u00a0the fiction novel<\/a>\u00a0Confessions of a<\/em> Terrorist<\/em>,\u00a0penned by terrorism expert Richard Jackson. The novel weaves factual information into a story about a Middle Eastern violent extremist and a British intelligence officer. Aiming to go beyond the \u2018good guy\/bad guy mindset\u2019, McKonea writes that the book provides uncomfortable answers to the question of why a person becomes a terrorist.<\/p>\n