Countering Extremism Through Voices of Defectors and Women

JANUARY 29, 2018
By: Justin Chapman, Pacific Council

To counter extremist groups’ recruiting efforts, the United States must amplify the voices and stories of defectors and women, Mr. Haroon Ullah said during an event hosted by the Pacific Council and the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. Ullah is the chief strategy officer at the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the author of the book Digital World War: Islamists, Extremists, and the Fight for Cyber Supremacy. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Karen North, director of USC Annenberg’s Digital Social Media program.

Watch the full conversation here.

"To take on terrorists’ online narratives, we have to include, curate, and amplify the voices of defectors and women," said Ullah. "How do we get those stories out there? Some of the most powerful stories are from defectors. If you look at gang culture in LA in the 90s, those who were former gang members had street cred. The messenger matters. The tragedy is that in most countries [joining a terrorist organization] is illegal, so there’s no way for them to be reintegrated. They have to be held accountable and they’re put in jail, so their stories are lost. We need to amplify and tell their stories. Their narratives can change people’s lives."

Ullah said that in addition to defector stories, voices of women—and mothers in particular—effectively counter extremists’ narratives. He added that terrorist groups like ISIL have become extremely sophisticated in terms of their online recruiting efforts.

"ISIL knows that audience matters," he said. "They have thought very carefully about and have a good sense of audience architecture and segmentation. Their mantra is, ‘The narrower the audience, the bigger the impact.’ They’ll say one thing in Arabic and then say something very different in English. Eighty percent of ISIL propaganda [in Arabic] is what we would call positive. A lot of it is about governance and giving candy to kids. Very different from what we see in English. We see the fear and horrifying beheadings and bloody narratives."

"They’re good at using new apps, social media platforms, and technologies to reach new audiences. They’re able to fail fast, change their message very nimbly, and evolve."

Haroon Ullah

Another thing from Ullah’s research—which was largely based on interviews with defectors—that he noticed is their platform agility and their ability to "fail fast and scale up," as he put it.

"ISIL started using platforms in 2014 and have since moved way beyond Facebook and Twitter," he said. "They’re using apps like Riot, which allows encrypted communications, and Sarahah, which is now the top app in 25 countries and bigger than Snapchat, in their recruitment efforts. They know how to move from platform to platform depending on the audience they’re trying to reach."

He added that they are also starting to crowdsource their recruiting using their own version of a Kickstarter campaign.

"They’re good at using new apps, social media platforms, and technologies to reach new audiences," he said. "They’re able to fail fast, change their message very nimbly, and evolve. They have these constant feedback loops."

"While we’re still talking about a platform they were using three years ago, they’ve moved on to different things. We now have to wrap our heads around ISIL 3.0."

Haroon Ullah

Ullah worries that the West is behind the curve when it comes to countering extremist narratives.

"Governments, by nature, move slowly," he said. "While we’re still talking about a platform they were using three years ago, they’ve moved on to different things. We now have to wrap our heads around ISIL 3.0. There are new terrorist groups on the horizon that have the potential to become ‘cloud caliphates’—an entirely virtual online ecosystem using the dark web, cryptocurrencies, and encrypted apps. That’s something to think about as we try to get ahead of this. This is a content war, and this field is moving so fast."

Ullah also argued that there are a few misperceptions regarding who joins groups like ISIL and why.

"It’s a misnomer in popular thinking that poverty drives militancy," he said. "That if you don’t have a job, if you need subsistence, you’re going to join one of these terrorist groups. But actually, if you look at the majority of fighters that went, they come from the middle class. They’re driven by identity grievances, not by economic grievances."

"The way ISIL recruiting works is that it’s spread through close, intimate, one-on-one contact. It actually models closely to the way diseases spread."

Haroon Ullah

Just like all politics is local, Ullah pointed out, all radicalization is local as well.

"There’s hotspot mapping and data that shows among the fighters in Tunisia, 80 percent of them came from one neighborhood in southern Tunisia, and in the Belgium attacks 75 percent of the fighters came from one neighborhood in Brussels," he said. "We almost need a public health approach. This counterinsurgency approach to fighting ISIL is not working. The way ISIL recruiting works is that it’s spread through close, intimate, one-on-one contact. It actually models closely to the way diseases spread."

Ullah pointed out that ISIL particularly knows how to reach a young audience. They plant a seed of doubt online through social media, encrypted apps, and the dark web, and eventually young people will find their message.

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Justin Chapman is the Communications Officer at the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Check out photos from this event on our Flickr page.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.

High Risk & High Reward: The Emerging Cryptocurrency Markets

JANUARY 18, 2018
By: Justin Chapman, Pacific Council

While emerging cryptocurrencies come with enormous risks including the lack of international regulations, the technology is also a source of important innovation and has the potential to help alleviate poverty, experts told Pacific Council members in a Situation Briefing teleconference.

The panel included Mr. Kwon Y. Park, counsel at Delta Strategy Group; Ms. Andrea O'Sullivan, Technology Policy Program manager at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center; and Mr. Enzo Villani, managing director of Transform Group LLC. The discussion was moderated by Mr. John Nahas, partner at Engeocom-Invicta Trading LLC.

Blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are changing the way people think about economic privacy, security, government currency monopolies, and the global financial system. With digital asset trade becoming an increasingly global phenomenon, the international financial regime has yet to develop policies to address the challenges that these new technologies raise.

"It’s useful to take a step back and ask, ‘What is this thing? What is Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies?’ It’s brand new," said Villani. "It’s not a true commodity, it’s not a complete fiat currency obviously, and it’s also not a pure equity because you don’t have the rights as an investor on the equity side, but you also don’t have the risk. It’s almost like a miles program and like crowdfunding, where people are pre-selling a utility product."

"Don’t expect to see these regulatory agencies banning specific activities outright... because U.S. regulators are mindful that they don’t want to hamper innovation."

Kwon Park

In December, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton released a statement on cryptocurrencies and ICOs (initial coin offerings, an unregulated means by which funds are raised for a new cryptocurrency venture), which in part read, "Please recognize that these markets span national borders and that significant trading may occur on systems and platforms outside the United States. Your invested funds may quickly travel overseas without your knowledge. As a result, risks can be amplified, including the risk that market regulators, such as the SEC, may not be able to effectively pursue bad actors or recover funds."

Park said he doesn’t expect U.S. regulators to introduce new formal rules regarding cryptocurrencies in 2018, because they are currently waiting to see how the industry plays out.

"In 2018, I would expect more interpretive guidance being issued from various agencies to provide additional clarity to the industry, but I don’t expect formal rulemaking per se," he said. "That doesn’t mean we won’t see one or two. I also don’t expect to see these regulatory agencies banning specific activities outright, such as these ICOs as Chinese and Korean regulators have done in their jurisdictions, because U.S. regulators are mindful that they don’t want to hamper innovation and have all of these innovative projects move overseas."

He pointed out that many investors and companies are trying to get into the cryptocurrency industry in recent years because people have been successful in raising capital through the success of many ICOs. He said that a lot of the concern regarding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies derives from their speculative nature.

"They’re not registered exchanges," he said. "But when these cryptocurrencies or ICO projects are considered a security, it will subject the token issuer to registration requirements with the SEC. It will require the exchanges that are trading these cryptocurrencies to register with the SEC as a national securities exchange. It will be subject to ongoing investor disclosure requirements and other regulations."

He pointed out that some market professionals attempt to get around this by labeling their ICOs "utility" tokens, but that that does not prevent the token from being a security. To date, no ICOs have been registered with the SEC.

"Regarding tax issues, the IRS has deemed virtual currencies as property for tax purposes, which means it would be subject to capital gains treatment," he said. "There is now some uncertainty as to whether all coin trading will be considered a lifetime exchange, meaning will you get taxed when you trade one cryptocurrency for another, or when you trade one cryptocurrency for a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar, so when you make the withdrawal that’s when the tax treatment would be triggered."

"People in war-torn areas may not be able to use traditional banking, so in those types of situations Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be a vital tool."

Andrea O'Sullivan

O’Sullivan gave a brief overview of how cryptocurrencies and online commerce developed, which she said took longer than it would have otherwise because of security concerns.

"In the early days of the internet, there was no infrastructure for people to make secure payments online," she said. "In late 2008/early 2009, it looked like the problem had finally been solved. The invention of blockchain technology—using peer-to-peer computing and cryptography—allowed people to send payments directly and securely from one person to another without having to rely on a trusted third party."

She pointed out that for people in countries with developed financial systems, this may not seem useful, but for people who live in countries without secure financial systems, this has the potential to be a very important tool in poverty alleviation.

"People in war-torn areas may not be able to use traditional banking, so in those types of situations Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be a vital tool," she said. "As a potentially cheaper alternative to paying Visa or PayPal fees, this could be a way to bring more people into the financial system and expand the domain of trade across the world."

"Rather than building an unwieldy new regulatory structure that might unduly limit some of the innovation taking place in this promising industry, a better path forward is to simply apply existing policies to money transmitters in the cryptocurrency space."

Andrea O'Sullivan

O’Sullivan said when she talks to policymakers, she tells them that many of the financial policies that are in place for existing activities can simply be applied to cryptocurrencies.

"Rather than building an unwieldy new regulatory structure that might unduly limit some of the innovation taking place in this promising industry, a better path forward is to simply apply existing policies to money transmitters in the cryptocurrency space," she said. "In other cases, new policies must be developed or reassessed. The policy approach should encourage the positive uses of such technologies while keeping an eye on the potential negative uses. U.S. leadership in this area should be solidified, lest we risk pushing development and innovation to other countries. Policymakers must educate themselves about this promising industry."

Villani argued that cryptocurrencies would never have been developed in the first place if worldwide banking transactions were not so slow and costly.

"The goal of cryptocurrencies is to take out the friction in the transacting and transferring of value across the world," he said. "There are challenges with the current banking system, such as the delay in transferring and the cost of Western Union which is extremely high. So you have the unbanked trying to send money to their home countries, and they’re paying these exorbitant fees. This would never have happened if banks were trustworthy and didn’t charge big money-wiring fees to people who are close to or below the poverty level."

"If you’re not ready to lose your money completely, you shouldn’t be in it. This is high risk and high reward."

Enzo Villani

Villani said that regulators are currently letting cryptocurrencies work themselves out because they do not want to hamper innovation.

"We all know there’s some type of bubble going on with cryptocurrencies," he added. "The press and the SEC highlighting that fact is a good thing. No one wants anyone to get hurt. But the people in this market are innovators and entrepreneurs. Regarding Bitcoin or any new market, you have to look at your own analysis. If you’re not ready to lose your money completely, you shouldn’t be in it. This is high risk and high reward."

Listen to the full conversation below:

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Justin Chapman is the Communications Officer at the Pacific Council on International Policy.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.


Saving American democracy

Patrisse Khan-Cullors explains why Black Lives Matter in a powerful memoir with asha bandele, When They Call You a Terrorist

By Justin Chapman, Pasadena Weekly, 1/18/2018

As the city of Pasadena deals with the fallout over the use-of-force incident in which Pasadena police officers beat a young African-American man named Chris Ballew on Nov. 9, Patrisse Khan-Cullors has released her timely and powerful memoir about co-founding Black Lives Matter and, in part, denouncing police brutality and calling for independent, community-led police auditors.

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir is a deeply personal exploration of Khan-Cullors’ life, from her hardscrabble upbringing in Van Nuys and the trauma of watching her pre-teen brothers being arrested for doing nothing to her exploration of her sexuality (she identifies as queer but had a couple of meaningful heterosexual relationships throughout her life). She describes bonding with her father and the pain of losing him too early, first to drugs and jail and then ultimately to death.

The book weaves her often painful personal and family history into the larger class and racial struggles taking place in Los Angeles in the 1980s and ’90s. From an early age, she learned that the police were not looking out for her or her family’s best interests.

“For my brothers, learning that they did not matter, that they were expendable, began in the streets, began while they were hanging out with friends, began while they were literally breathing while Black,” she wrote. “For us, law enforcement had nothing to do with protecting and serving, but controlling and containing the movement of children who had been labeled super-predators simply by virtue of who they were born to and where they were born, not because they were actually doing anything predatory.”

An Unheard Story

The memoir, co-authored by writer and activist asha bandele, with an introduction by activist and scholar Angela Davis, is written poetically, at once calling out the injustices of America while also inspiring hope into a new generation and instilling the fight in those to come. On Friday, Khan-Cullors and bandele launched a 14-city book tour at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, which was attended by hundreds of people.

“Part of the reason why I wrote this book is because I wanted to have a larger conversation about what it means to grow up black and queer as a woman in Los Angeles, which has been deeply impacted by militant policing and a jail system that is the largest jailor in the world,” said Khan-Cullors. “How does that actually impact black women and young black girls? We haven’t heard a story in that way, because mass incarceration and state violence is so often talked about through the lens of black men. It’s also a coming of age story. It’s about how I became an organizer and eventually how I helped start Black Lives Matter.”

Her work inspired Jasmine Abdullah and Black Lives Matter Pasadena, who have been vocal in opposition to the killings and brutality carried out by the Pasadena Police Department. Khan-Cullors called their work “powerful.”

“Pasadena often reminds me of a small suburb outside of a big city that gets very little attention,” she said. “I remember the very small story about Kendrec McDade’s killing and Reginald Thomas’ killing. Black Lives Matter Pasadena is a lot of young people, 11 year olds and 12 year olds, who are trying to carve out a space for black people in a historically white town.”

The book also lays out the tragedy of Khan-Cullors’ brother Monte, who suffered from schizoaffective disorder but was treated like a criminal and a gang member by the police, who arrested him, charged him with terrorism for yelling after a fender bender, withheld medication from him, beat him and humiliated him in jail, and repeated the process shortly after he was released. His life, like many other young black men before and after him, was never the same, and neither were the lives of his family members, who were forced to be the support network that society denied him.

After reading the 2011 ACLU report detailing the abuse deputies inflicted upon inmates in LA County jails, Khan-Cullors realized that although she and other activists are often called terrorists, it is the police who terrorize black people.

“I am still a teenager when [Monte] is tortured by the LA County Sheriff’s Department,” she wrote. “Torture is planned out and its purpose is to deliberately and systematically dismantle a person’s identity and humanity. It is designed to destroy a sense of community and eliminate leaders and create a climate of fear. Torture is terrorism.”

First and foremost, Khan-Cullors wants people who read the book to realize how resilient black people and other people at the margins of society actually are.

“I want people to see more than just the really tragic stories that I talk about in the book, but also that organizing and activism can actually save American democracy,” she said. “And I want people to see the love that I have and that so many of us have for black people.”

Birth of a Movement

Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 following the tragic acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. In the wake of the verdict, Khan-Cullors responded to a Facebook post by her friend Alicia with a hashtag that would soon go viral. In response to her friend writing, “Stop saying that we are not surprised. That’s a damn shame in itself. I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter. Stop giving up on black life,” Khan-Cullors wrote, “#BlackLivesMatter.” And thus, a movement was born. And Khan-Cullors began organizing.

The movement picked up steam in 2014 following the shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, by a white officer. With each new killing of an unarmed black person by a white officer across the country, the message that black lives do not matter became further ingrained, Khan-Cullors writes in her memoir, and therefore all the more necessary is the message of Black Lives Matter.

Looking ahead, Khan-Cullors said Black Lives Matter is developing a strategic vision and plan for the next five years.

“Black Lives Matter, the organization, and the larger movement for black lives is in a really powerful moment,” she said. “We are taking stock of the last four and a half years and taking the time to really codify the work that we’ve done. We are in a place where much of our work is about what it takes to build strong institutions that can take on administrations like we have right now under 45.”

She added that President Donald Trump’s recent comments referring to Haiti and African countries as “shitholes” is “absolutely disturbing.”

“The fact that he’s the president is disturbing,” she said. “The reality that he is the president for such a marginal part of our population, and that he really represents the underbelly of American society.”