Transcripts For CSPAN3 Countering Violent Extremism 20180130

Mayors of louisville and anaheim and possibly one other mayor travel to india. Right now we only have one member in india. We hope to increase memberships and get cities more active. Major tate was so impressed with what he saw that he wants to launch a yearlong campaign. Its the Strong Cities network messaging campaign on kindness. One thing ill note about this, not all cities, violent extremism isnt an immediate major concern for all cities. Granted, there are attacks in places where its quite surprising like that town, that really small town in texas a couple months ago. That being said, mayors are not going to allocate huge amount of resources just because its topic of the day or whatever. Its just to say that by investing or getting mayors to invest in social cohesion, kind of a know your neighbor kind of initiative, thats something that some cities can buy into and you know its not going to upset advocacy groups or whatever. Thats just to say this delegation is really important for us because its sending these high level mayors to, priority country for us. Please follow twitter and ill update you on the progress of that. Next id like to talk to you about the south by southwest festival. This is also a partnership that developed from us engaging the u. S. Conference of mayors. So we have two panels. One is local leadership in the wake of terror. That will feature the mayors of chatanooga, orlando and manchester. Im going to moderate a panel local efforts for local leadership ship. Ive mentioned chattanooga a couple of times. Hes also traveled to the netherlands to engage in a Speaker Program for us. So we certainly when we find mayors or cities that are willing to engage, we engage them as much as we can. We dont want to overuse those connections. You know, i think sometimes mayors they get hammered in the press by their opponents to say they are traveling on an international junket. I could just tell you with global meeting in denmark, the mayors of anaheim and chattanooga stayed in a hotel that wasnt up to par with anyone in this room yet alone the mayors of major u. S. Cities. It took them over 24 hours travel time to get there. Its just to say if we ask them once, we have to really think about asking them twice. We have to make sure that experience is good for them so that they will recommend these programs to other mayors because we really do want to send u. S. Mayors out there to develop connections between cities. Our role is to facilitate that connection. Once that connection is established, we can back away. Certainly we dont want to play a large role in this. We want to coordinate. This concludes the formal component in my presentation. Again, id like to thank the Public Diplomacy council for the opportunity to speak with you, and im happy to answer any and all of your questions. Thank you so much. [ applause ] i see one hand up already. Thank you. The Trump Administration has been antimuslim and antiimmigration. Im wondering what the impact of this attitude is on getting cooperation from muslim and immigrant communities and cities around the country . Were the state department. Its hard for me to talk and necessarily come up in your discussion . Its something that i would just say that the hay mayors that we talk with domestically and internationally, i think they recognize they recognize our role, the state departments and its just to say that its just an issue that the, you know, i think we talk on a more minute level about more of a working level about the issues and for some people its not a concern. The when people have concerns we note them. Its just to say that for us, our programs are focused on the tactic, the ideology and not connecting it necessarily to the muslims or islam. I would just say that for us, i think any conversation we have regardless of what one person or another says, there are challenges and we try and work through them. Thank you. I have to say i never knew anything about the Strong Cities network before. Im wondering how your bureau andles this particular program, how it intersects with the state department and is focused on Counter Terrorism but specifically countering violent extremism. Thank you. Thank you. We work closely with the Global Engagement center. Theyve actually helped us with funding some of our activities. Its something were all one happy family. The resources that we get dont necessarily cover they dont necessarily meet the demand for programming. Im trying to speak plainly as i can. We dont have all the money in the Counter Terrorism bureau. For certain activities well go to the undersecretary of diplomacy, the r bureau, as youre familiar with. To fund the mayoral delegation to india. Thats something theyre funding. Theyre funding bringing the mayors from germany, ireland and the uk. I think we definitely do work with them and we definitely do work with them. Sherry mueller. School of International Service at au. Wanted to ask you, what is the extent your work with a Strong Cities network relates to the Sister Cities International network, other mayoral networks such as the one that focuses on hiroshima and the antinuclear set of mayors that are concerned. I think theres 250 of them. How to you interact with these already existing programs . The Strong Cities network is not meant to compete with any existing network. In many cases we look for ways to complement each other. Obviously, as i mentioned before, the institute for Strategic Dialogue they are the implementers. They run the Strong Cities they network. They are concerned about keeping the lights on and their organizations but in terms of connectivity, we definitely look for those opportunities. When were trying to partner in International City with u. S. City in terms of the city pair program. If they are already sister cities then thats a bonus. Its just to say that the network, i think, it succeeds because its not trying to take the place of any other network and, you know, we encourage the institute for Strategic Dialogue to be friendly with any and all other networks out there. Mike, retired Foreign Services officer. Is your model applicable to other global problems and, if so is state using your model to attack other global issues. Im thinking particularly of the Climate Change issue. Ive read a lot of Many Americans and governors seem interested in that issue. Im wondering if they are partnering at all with kornt part cities through state. And, if so, is there a possibility of fatigue in terms of foreign cities especially being asked to partner with state on problem x, y or z. Do you see that a problem . I think we didnt invent the two way exchange. The twinning program. I dont know who started such partnerships but its just to say that the model can be used for multiple policy priorities and certainly the connections and ill just say this, when were sending a mayor from the United States overseas and most of the places where were sending these mayors, they dont have direct connections with the u. S. And its a long travel time. What we try and sell them on is you are going to travel fp were paying for it, youre going to discuss our policy priorities. Whatever their opinions are of them but if those, if it leads to further connections or discussion of other topics, by all means. When were bringing the International Mayors to the United States for the u. S. Conference of mayors winter meeting, they have an entire day on their schedule of networking with other mayors. I would say thats a bonus. Thats a good way, thats an incentive for us to engage mayors because ill give you one example with denmark. If you havent worked on counter violent extremism, you probably have not heard of that city which is a lovely city. Ive been there twice. But its just to say that because of their great work engaging at risk, theyre at risk population they have created an international reputation. I think that that opens the door for further conversation on other issues. Retired Foreign Service officer. Im just wondering when youre trying to identify the people to talk to in foreign cities, Foreign Countries or when youre going through the embassy, what officer within the embassy to you work with . Do you work with Public Affairs or the political section or who are the people that are your liaisons with the people on the ground . Its a public program. I will note that me, im not i dont have a im a Foreign Affairs officer. Initiatives like the Strong Cities network, as youre listening to me talk about them, its obvious that theres a nexus with Public Diplomacy. And thats just to say that our conversations are both with the Public Affairs office, Public Affairs section and the political section. And thats just to say that when we talk about a whole of government, whole of society approach, we need a whole of washington and whole of embassy approach. When its a small embassy, thats easier to do because the people are typically, as you know, close to each other. In other cases like you probably know like in bangladesh, the Public Affairs section and the political section are in completely different buildings over a mile apart. Its just to say that we try and coordinate with everybody. The one thing i would like to do with future exchanges, its secure some funding so that when the participants return home, every time theres an exchange, people come back with ideas and to have a little bit of funding to provide them to for seed funding. For these initiatives. But thats not to say theres definitely room for improvement on these programs. Thanks. My question dove tails on what you just said. In terms of follow up where you have one or two participants from a city and how much effect they have on the rest of the population. You mentioned in some cases like facebook theyve kept in touch and continued to collaborate on projects. Do you have any sense of what those projects or policies might be . How are they taking the information they learned and implementing that at home to have a wider affect . In one case, in the case of france and belgium with exchanges when we had people from both countries, when theres the distance isnt too great. They are traveling to the other persons city and helping them kind of assess their issues and what they can do. I can tell you that of the groups i mentioned that we edge gauge, whether its an educator or religious leader or lets say a Mental Health professional, counselor, religious leaders arent experts on counselling and counselors arent necessarily experts in religious doctrine. When we can put people who havent been in a room together on a seven to one week to three week trip, not to say they necessarily become best friends but they know each other better. Its just to say that weve had people who have really cbe is an issue where if a city has one cbe coordinator theyre lucky. Los angeles has eye cbe coordinator are you but that doesnt mean that anaheim has a cbe coordinator or lets say seattle. And so these individuals when they connect with people from other cities then they are able to console each other. To provide mentorship or partnership and so, i think thats one of the values of the Strong Cities network. Its great when we can connect mayors but its the working level people who are working on these issues and theres no one else in the building who knows what they are dealing with. We like to talk about metrics. How do we know that was your question. How do we know what were funding is working. I think its important for them to connect. They have and i would say that i definitely dont want to take the credit for everything that i presented on. We work closely with dhs, and our embassies. Its critical our embassies identify the right people. Not so say ive seen a bad exchange but ive seen some really good exchanges and its because they were able to recruit dynamic people. Just because someone is the highest ranking, doesnt mean theyre the best fit for that exchange. I think the embassy, having those connections whether its through the Public Affairs or the political sections, its critical that they recruit these people. The biggest, one of the Biggest Challenges we have with these exchanges, were offering a free trip to the United States. They all cannot necessarily accept them because its really difficult to take one to three weeks off and they are scared to death of while theyre away theres a terrorist attack or just the optics of it all. Its just to say that it require a lot of ground work. When weve done these others theres a lot of Relationship Building that takes place and i think the two way exchanges are really good for those cities ta have put in a lot of effort. Like the ivlp is like a conversation starter where you want them to build political will. The city pair program, they already have the will and they want to take their efforts to the next level. Mike nelson. I feel like a bit of an anomaly because i have not worked for the state department. I work for cloud fair. We protect about 7 million web sites from cyber attacks. I was curious how many time you and mayors are spending talking about the web, particularly three different aspects. Some countries theres talk of trying to sensor the internet and block jihadist content. Other countries taking a smarter approach. Looking at those websites and trying to understand whats going on and counter their messages. Probably the most positive response are cities and countries that are trying to build online communities and provide some of the community that is often lacking immigrant communities and elsewhere. Are there cities that are doing interest things and can you point us to them . I would just say messaging at this point on the city level, im not going say im not aware of it but its just to say its not as developed as the National Level messaging or private sector counter messaging and for us, getting the mayor of anaheim, getting a messaging campaign out, thats something that is acceptable when you talk about lets spread kindness. Lets have one group from one ethnicity or one group talk to another group. Thats palatable for a lot of people. When you talk about directly Counter Terrorist narratives, thats quite challenging. Our policy is not to if you take down content then that can reenforce some of the grievances that led people to these groups. I think thats important that we recognize that we have to promote free speech. Then also, a lot of social Media Companies they have been updating their user agreements. We all have been on the various sites and you can access some nasty information by extremist groups. I think theres a smart way to do it while protecting civil rights and free speech. I would say that i think kind of the next step for the Strong Cities network when we, as we develop strong relationships with cities they also have really good relationships with the private sector and i, mike duffin, representative of the u. S. Government going to twitter or facebook they may not be as receptive as a mayor or someone from the community approaching them. Its just to say that its a challenge but its something that were trying to find the right approach. Are any of the mayors you talk to discussing the idea of isis fighters returning from the battlefield . Maybe the ones in belgium or trance or places like that or does that not bubble up to your level . It bubbles up to my level. Ill just say the one thing its very challenging issue is when you have entire families who went to iraq and syria and granted the government can arrest the male and possibly the female and send them to prison for a certain amount of time. The child hasnt necessarily committed a crime but that child is exposed to trauma which should not be left unattended. I think its something that there are a lot of cities that have their hands full with this issue. Its something that will take a long time for them to figure out what to do. I think thats why its critical that we engage Mental Health professionals, educators and others. Post 9 11 weve had if you see something, say something. Its important to teach, to educate people about what theyre seeing and what to do about it when they see that. What weve been doing is working with other governments on the local and National Level to develop programs in the precrime space so that if a young, lets say an 8yearold boy in whatever country the teacher catches him or her watching isis videos. Thats not necessarily a crime. What do you do about that . Also the challenges in several countries, they dont have a lot of people who are trained to be Mental Health professionals and whatnot. So ill give you one example are bangladesh, a country of about 160 Million People were they have less than 200 people who were fully certified, you know, Mental Health professionals. So how do we do you where we partner with them on this issue . Thats not to say were going to ramp up the number of people certified to, you know, 5,000 or 10,000, its more how do we train parents and coaches and all the people that i mentioned to deal with these issues . And, you know, the one area that weve really found a lot of fer tile ground with is working with parents, because ultimately you look at the case studies of people who have committed violent acts. Ha did people around them now . And some in some occasions people knew something was off but they werent able to connect the dots. And so by having, you know, by engaging parents, teaching them, you know, what to do, thats been very helpful. But, you know, its the number of returning foreign fighters is quite significant. And in some cases it impacts some communities disproportionately. So its definitely an issue thats on the minds of many mayors, but its just to say that its going to be a challenge harnessing the number of resources that are necessary. Quick followup. It sounds like this is one of the areas where you are developing best practices or good practices. How do you disseminate them once youve identified positive approaches to mayors involved and to others . Well, one example is the Strong Cities have an online hub, and so we dont necessarily expect the mayor to access the website. But its important that there is one place to go where people can go to look for this information. So, you know, a working level person from the city. I will also mention the global the gctf, the global counterterrorism forum, the United States and other countries have invested in, its called the life psych toll radicalization initiative. If you google it, i know its i mouthful but if you google it theres a website that keeps you know, it constantly is updated with all of the good or best practices. And so, you know, the one thing ill point out, adam, is that to join or support a terrorist organization like isis, theres all this information on the internet. So you just google isis or, you know, some key terms. You find a website or a chat room, someone will engage you. You know, there are tool kits, you know, how to commit violent acts. You know, the magda beak or inspire or even like a larger documents like the management of savagery which teaches you how do all this stuff, and then have you mentorship, you know, you can connect with the people online. But to Counter Terrorist groups were we have the information out there but people dont necessarily know how to access it and they dont have the mentorship, People Holding their hands. How do you heres a question. If you want to start a cve program in your city, how do you that . And so, you know, i would just say that the cities that i would have in mind to have such programs may not be interested in them or some that are not on my radar that would be very untrusted. So its just to say that, you know, we have to explain what were doing, the Strong Cities next network its designed to counter all forms of violent extremism. You know, in the bylaws, it outlines that were not targeting one religion, one ethnic group, you know, and so i think that thats a major concern. If a mayor of whichever city says i want to join the Strong Cities network, they have a press release and all of a sudden there are Community Groups that are, you know then they have a right to be concerned, but its just to say that its important that whenever we have conversations about what we want to do that we walk people through it and explain that, you know, were not trying to discriminate, were not trying to target. The first amendment, as you know, the establishment clause does not allow us to promote one form of religion over another. So i think that, you know, thats all reflected in our approach. So youve already touched about the importance of healthcare providers, educators and religious leaders play in cve. I was wondering how theyre currently engamed in the network and how they could be more involved in the future. Well, if i could just talk about the practical aspect whf we have our events, melbourne, australia, is hosting the next global meeting in may. And then los angeles will likely host it in 2019. It costs a lot of money, as you know, to travel to australia or even to los angeles. So if the state department or another organization has some funding, were lucky if we could bring one or two people from the city. And certainly, you know, i mentioned the people who we brought to denmark in may. If we had unlimited funding we could have brought, you know, ten, 15 mayors because theres definitely a lot of interest in it. So its just to say that we need a way to we need to bring in the private sector to sponsor some of this some of these activities. You know, we, the state department, dont necessarily have to be involved. It doesnt have to necessarily, you know, if two cities want to connect on this topic and they dont want to be part of the Strong Cities network, you know, thats fine. If theres a way for to us facilitate those connections, great. Its just to say that, you know, its, you know, logistically its difficult to bring everybody on an exchange. But that being said, i think that theres a way, you know, obviously whether its skype or, you know, google hangout or something, we do need to have forums where, you know, a larger contingency from a city can connect with, you know, International Counterparts and i mentioned the western vol cans ip that we did in april. We met with a Community Called clarks ston, theyre a suburb of atlanta. Theyve accepted somewhere around if youll google them youll see a loot of articles around the world about this tiny little community. Its 1 square mile, 10,000 people, theyve accepted 40,000 refugees over the last four decades. Apparently once people they spend a year or two and then they move somewhere nearby. But we met with everybody in the community, not all 10,000 people, but, you know, on a sunday afternoon we had about 200 people packed in this Community Center who wanted to meet with, you know, with our exchange visitors. But i do think that religious leaders, you know, the chal there are challenges engaging them and we have to find ways to work through that. You know, we cant do without them, so. Please identify yourself. Im from Albany Associates. Ive been working in east africa on pcve programs and i was wondering whats the process to engage in the Strong Cities network . Some of the countries in east africa have had a lot of extreme terrorist attack and threats. Whats the engagement to engage with some of the cities . Would it be through the Civil Society . Would it from the government and would that be done from the bureau itself or isd or the embassy . Would be good to know a little bit more information about the selection process. And thank you for the work do you, albany and associates definitely ive heard a lot of good things about your organization. So if you do have an organization in mind that you think should work with the network, i would just say, you know, the email are you could go to the website Strong Cities network. Org, their email is info Strong Cities network. Org. Introduce yourself, you know, theyll set up a Conference Call and kind of figure out what youre doing, what you want to do, you know, whats realistic. And for us, weve done workshops, we do exchanges. Besides what i talked about with bringing International Delegations to the United States, what we want to do, the next iteration of the Strong Cities network, do i dont want to call them micro exchanges, but theyre best practices or good practices in lets say tansa kneea ya and we want to connect those people with counterparts in kenya. Believe it or not, when i was in Southern California in march, you know, there are people who when i was talking to one municipality they didnt know what the municipality next door was doing. Thats not something that, you know, we or dhs need to fund because theyre literally right next to each other. But its just to say that finding opportunities for communities to connect and to talk about these issues and, you know, i would just say that the network wants to engage and to connect and find areas of synergy for some of your initiatives because i would say that, one, as ive said before, its not trying to be the, you know ar know, the only network. And the only way that were going to truly defeat isis, its by developing, you know, beyond just the defeat isis coalition, you know, national governments. You need to find ways for Civil Society and others to work with each other. And one of the challenges, though, when we bring people to the United States, the relationship between the mayor and religious leaders. I could tell you like mayor burke for example, he meets, i would say, once every three or four months with religious leaders. If he doesnt, theyre going to let him know the next time he runs for, you know, when he tries to get reelected. In atlanta, every park program that they do that engages youth or even more targeted atrisk youth, its funded by cocacola or some organization and, you know, in other countries Corporate Social Responsibility is not necessarily the same as it is here in the United States. So i would just say that, you know, we definitely need to connect people. We need to find ways to work with, you know, if youre being funded by the United States or another government, how your efforts can compliment each other. But i would just say that the major challenge is just coordination takes a lot of time and, you know, certainly we could fill our entire schedules, diaries up with coordination meetings and ultimately, you know, little well coordinate but there wont be a lot to coordinate because were not getting anything done. So its a catch 22, as you know. Jack from Albany Associates also. You were talking about preventative preventing violent extremism and cve mentoring. Whats been your luck with groups like life after hate and others like that for building up a partnership and mentoring between domestic radicalization programs like that that do mentor people away from, you know, radicalizing and being part of a hate group and partnering that with other, you know, International Groups that do the same thing to kind of build a consensus and a mentoring platform . Ive worked quite closely with the founder of life after hate and others who i dont think either of those individuals are currently associated with life after hate. But, you know, just in general what youre asking about. There are a lot of good practices. We dont have to reinvent the wheel. And so work countering far right, you know, white supremacist groups, work to counter gang recruitment, even like suicide prevention, alcoholics anonymous, the boys and girls club, there is a wealth of knowledge that we have. And, you know, with life after hate its this organization, its comprised of former skin heads, white supremacists, whatever you want to call them. But, you know, one of the challenges working with formers, as youve, you know, as you know, is that a former isnt necessarily the best case manager or the best spokesperson for your cause. If theyre speaking out against violence, you know, is there a way that we can amplify their message . And the same is true of religious leaders where, you know, theyll say violence is bad and, you know, these terrorists have nothing to do with our religion. Hey, do you want to partner with the u. S. Government . You know, they may not want to. And it may hurt their cause by being seen as, you know, being cozy with us. So is there a way that, you know, we can provide training or at least point them in the right direction . And i think that thats why, you know, private sector charitable organizations, its important that, you know you know, its easy for me to stand here and say companies should donate for cve causes. But i think at the end of the day that would really be critical and with life after hate, its important that we find ways to engage with those organizations. Weve sent christian and other people weve sent them to speak all around the world and, you know, i think that theres something about formers when they speak, you know, im amazed that all uh showed up to hear me speak. I think its more like the free lunch. But its just to say, though, that, you know, you can have a subject Matter Expert and you send them overseas or do you have them speak somewhere and theyre not necessarily going to fill the room. But when you have someone with a compelling message, that definitely is you know, will bring a lot of people and when hes spoken, every time that christian talks, by the way, hes on the panel that we have at the south by southwest festival. People who have stories to share, whether its them personally or a friend or relative, he always gets requests for people to help on conduct an intervention. But, you know, the challenge with people who have been recruited by isis, it takes a long, long time for them to fully get out of the movement. And, you know, they may condemn violence, but their message isnt necessarily the message that we want to promote. And so and i would also say that, you know, in terms of their recovery from, you know, Christian Google him, check out his book, i highly recommend it. But hes someone who after he left the skin head movement, it took him a good you know, rock bottom for him was five years. And even then year six and seven they were pretty rough. So when you hear him speak, whether its on 60 minutes or the megyn kelly show, thats a person whos 20 years removed from the movement. And theres no formula to say like, you know, you have to wait five years and two months. But, you know, i just think its a challenge and, you know, i think that we have to really consider when were partnering with people are we engaging too much . And ill mention something else. You know, when theres a terrorist attack, there are heroes and other people who, you know, really step forward, you know, like victims and others who speak out. And if we engage them too much, how does that impact their lives and them stepping into the spotlight . And so ive seen examples and i wont mention names, of people who just felt like they were compelled to step forward and speak out against terrorism. And, you know, they were criticized in the media, you know, theyve been trolled by certain people on the internet and their businesses have been called, and whatnot. So its just to say that we have to act responsibly when they engage someone and bring them into the spotlight because they may not be ready for that. Hi. Paul delaney, retired journalist, spent most of my career in new york times. You mentioned cocacola and atlanta, and i was wondering, atlanta had a recent election and will have there will be a turnover in the administration. How do you negotiate now with the new administration in atlanta . Will that make a difference in your approach or are you concerned . Will there be problems . I think that what were trying to do with the Strong Cities network is we want first of all, cve has to be a nonpartisan issue. Terrorisms bad, we have to do something to prevent it, right. That seems simple. The photo of so mayor tate, hes a republican and, you know, mayor burke is a democrat. And so, you know, its important that we have bipartisan support. Its important that these programs, these good practices, as i mentioned before, are institution institutionalized. Because if i take another job, you know, or my boss takes another job, we want to make sure that the people that replace us are continuing the work and building on it. We dont have to start from square one. And that is an absolute challenge. And we have seen that. And, you know, its just to say that we constantly have to reinforce that this is not the state department, the federal governments network. We support the network, but other governments also support the network and were hoping that, you know, cities can start funding these exchanges on their own. And, you know, as i mentioned, that if the private sector can start contributing if the an airline, you know, airlines as you know and hotels are very focused on security. If they wanted to sponsor these exchanges, you know, if city officials, law enforcement, if they know more about ways to prevent attacks that, you know, in the end will cost save them a lot of money. So its just to say that we need more people involved in these efforts. But we dont need to securityize the issue either. And i think thats the one thing when we talk about engaging educators for example, were not expecting i was a teacher and educators have a lot on their plates and, you know, classroom management is, you know, priority number one. And its just to say that, you know, you need a way to find, you know, find a way for educators in Montgomery County and the work that worde has been doing, is great and its just to say that you need a softer approach or a way to talk about these issues that doesnt ring alarm bells amongs tt students parents. I think that ultimately students need to talk about the issues and talk about global issues, and, you know, but definitely a change in the change in the administration on the local level, that could be a challenge and thats high its important that we engage mayors and thats why were bringing mayors, International Mayors to the u. S. For this january 24th workshop. Because we want this to be on the radar. And were hopefully going to establish a Strong Cities task force through the u. S. Conference of mayors because this is an issue, unfortunately, i mentioned back in september i was asked a question about the were doing an exchange between los angeles, san bernardino, and calgary and edmonton in canada, and the question i was asked was why vegas . Do you have a gambling problem . Whats the appeal . And, you know, sadly, you know, this is an issue that mayor goodman, she expected an attack, she didnt suspect it would be a 64yearold man, you know. But its just to say that they expected a major terrorist attack and, you know, theyd been trying to do a lot to engage you know, theyre not just concerned about isis, theyre concerned about sovereign citizens and other groups. You said airlines have an interest. Have you approached airlines or other travel companies for comp or contributions . So not to, like, give away, you know, to say were talking with this person or that person. But we have started conversations with certain companies, organizations. And, you know, the one thing, you know, we really are going to lean heavily on the mayors and cities for those connections. We dont have the personnel to engage continuously. You know, were over im overextended. But its just to say that, you know, chattanooga, theyre hosting an event in october. I think were calling it like the Strong Cities Network Summit of the americas. So its focused on the western hems atmosphere. So u. S. Cities, canada and like the caribbean. And, you know, mayor burke and his staff, theyre reaching out to several corporations. Its just to say that we do were going to lean heavily on the mayors for those engagements. So hopefully you know, the Networks Just over two years old. You know, when i took over, we had about 37 members, now we have about 125. We probably have a good 20 to 30 other cities that are kicking the tires on joining the network. But, you know, i think that its something that if i could report back to you in a year or two with the progress weve made. And certainly just like us with our foreign assistance, companies arent necessarily Walking Around with a checkbook looking to you know, theres a long process for them to determine who they want to donate to. So, you know, we have to figure or the Strong Cities network has to figure out the rules and apply. So, its just to say that a lot of work remains to be done. Thank you. Thank you. Oh. There we go. Thank you for your remarks. Miles smith from internews. Were one of the implementers in this space and what dwe do is ty to amplify the moderate voices so theyre not drowned out by the extremist ones that get coverage by the press. I was wondering if media and information is part of the strategy for the network or if you could comment more broadly on what the office does with media to engage on the subject. Ill try and answer your question. I think that part of the for us, the Global Engagement center would be working i dont want to say have the lead but they would have a lot of responsibility in that area. I think part of it, we have to find a way to promote Critical Thinking. And you know, certainly we all have, on our social media accounts, weve clicked on something we thought was legitimate news. Im not going to say that term. But you know, its just to say, how do you distinguish between a Conspiracy Theory and legitimate reporting, and you know, if you google Strong Cities network, youll find a lot of conspiracy theories. Im not going to delve into it, but its just to say that what weve tried to do our approach has been to not necessarily respond directly to those individuals who are floating or spreading those conspiracy theories, but to act with transparency. So, you allege that the Strong Cities network is like some conspiracy to for cities to or one government to hand over srchovereignty to the u. S. Excuse me, to the u. N. First of all, were not trying to tell any cities what to do. Theyre invited to participate in the network. And if you think that were up to something nefarious, come to one of our meetings. We dont necessarily advertise the address, but if you really want to go, like here for example, theres nothing secret about us discussing these issues. So, its just to say that i think that promoting Critical Thinking and acting or, you know, transparency when possible. Obviously, if youre Albany Associates and youre working on a sensitive project in east africa, youre not going to necessarily say, we have a training here tomorrow. But you know, i think there are ways that we can show that what were doing, you know, we have nothing to hide, if you will. But finding a way to promote i think finland, maybe, has been doing some really good work with promoting Critical Thinking within schools, you know, definitely with their location in the world, they have a need to really work on this issue. But its just to say that we have to find a way to get some of these efforts into the classroom without it interfering with the curriculum, if you will. Charles schneiderman, audiovideo news. One of the principal strategies of a terrorist organization is to select targets that have a high chance of success. So, let me echo adams suggestion and suggestion, i think, which has been made, at least implied by a number of folks around here, that maybe having an accessible form of best practices so you dont have a paradoxical effect of the secure Cities Network paradoxically making communities that arent participating at greater risk. Right. Absolutely. All the way in the back. Good afternoon. Im George Pendleton and i assure you its not lunch, because your talk is quite nourishing. Senator ben saas has written a book called adults adrift and i guess you could probably put that problem synonymous to the problem of youth unemployment, underemployment, the inability to launch ones life. To what extent has the youth unemployment issue been present at the forum of the Strong Cities network as one of the root causes for some of this violence, and if you were to put it in your own words, you said some of these cities dont necessarily think they have an extremism issue or thats not why they got into it, but if you believe in the one sense that, if it aint broke, dont fix it, if you believe in the other sense, then, if it aint broke, break it and fix it, what are the indicators that would bring a city to a conclusion that it needed to focus on some of the root causes, and is that one of them, i guess, is my real issue. So, i would just say that, weve seen with the examples, you know, some of these cities have had a long history of suffering, experiencing terrorist attacks. But in the u. S. , for example, if you look at the three cities that have had the most fatalities in the last five years or so, san bernardino, chattanooga, orlando, those arent the cities you would have thought of post9 11 that would experience such attacks. So, its really hard to predict. With radicalization taking place on the internet, a person could get radicalized anywhere. And thats going to theyre not going to necessarily travel a long distance. The areas that they are familiar with are the places where they will possibly have the most success attacking. As opposed to them traveling across the country and focusing on some place theyre not familiar with. Employment, poverty, in itself, is not necessarily a driver to radicalization, the violence. People have grievances. They feel like ill give you one example. I was 23 years old, and i graduated from northwestern universitys journalism school, one of the top ones in the world. I expected to be at the new york times, if not like the next day, pretty soon thereafter, and im not going to talk about my salary then, but it was like, oh, i have to live at home with my parents. You know, so there was a grievance. Thats not to say i was on the path to radicalization, the violence, but there are a lot of kids around the world who have a lot of potential, and when they see the theyre not able to get those jobs, either because theres corruption in the government, you know, in their national or local government, and either theyre not developing the jobs that those individuals could half ve or th jobs are going to other people who are connected to that government, that really can fuel the radicalization process. So some people have speculated about, like, engineers, for example, why do they why are they more susceptible to radicalization as opposed to other people. I dont know if i necessarily buy into that, but its just to say that if youre highly educated and you expect to make 70,000 a year and youre working at applebees or driving a taxi, youre kind of ticked off at the world and when someone comes in and says, its because of they simplify complex issues and all of a sudden, life can be a lot simpler if you just join this group and with conspiracy theories and with extremist organizations, theyre trying to turn things you know, turn gray into black and white. With all due respect to the new york times, had you gone there the next day, you probably would not be doing this work now, so please join me in thanking our speaker, mike duffin. Thank you. Our next program will be the first monday in february, monday, february 5th. Until then, we are adjourned. And live this morning here on cspan3, were on capitol hill where epa administrator scott pruitt will be testifying. There he is before the camera there, his back turned to the camera. The