(CNS News) – The “effective use of social media” by Islamic extremists poses new and serious threats to the U.S. homeland, but “it’s important to remember that a lot of the counter-narrative needs to come from within the community,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
“And so, when I meet with community leaders, I am asking them, what are we doing to counter this narrative? It is slick. It is effective,” Johnson said, referring to the terrorists’ Internet recruitment.
“But we need to get the message out, and that’s not necessarily a government objective, a government mission. It has to come from within the community. It has to come from Islamic leaders, who, frankly can talk the language better than the federal government can.
“And so when I meet with community leaders, Islamic leaders, that’s one of the things that we urge them to do. Some have began it. We’ve seen some good progress, but there is a lot more that can be done.”
Johnson said some of the local, ethnic communities “are very tight-knit.”
“Some do a very good job of knowing what’s happening in their neighborhoods and their communities. Others are still a work in progress. But just in the last year, I’m seeing progress. We see success stories in law enforcement reports, but there’s more we need to do, very clearly.”
Johnson said since the 9/11 attacks, the federal government has “come a long way” in its ability to work with state and local law enforcement. “Just on my watch in the last 16 months, we’ve had to ramp up our communications with state and local law enforcement because of the manner in which the global terrorist threat is evolving. And the FBI and my department work every day together to get information out to law enforcement on the local level.”
Johnson noted that in the new threat environment, “the so-called lone wolf could strike at any moment. Which is why the FBI, in my judgment, has done an excellent job of interdicting those who are attempting to travel to Syria, who commit overt acts in furtherance of material support to terrorism. It is a new environment, but we are not discouraging Americans from doing the things they do on a daily basis.”
Johnson said the American public should be “vigilant” and “aware,” yet not hesitate to attend public events.
‘Weakest leg in the counterterrorism stool‘
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Michel Leiter, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said the U.S. government is doing a poor job in opposing the terrorists’ messaging on social media:
“I think this has probably been the weakest leg in the counterterrorism stool that we’ve ever had,” Leiter said. “Frankly, we haven’t funded it the way we have to. Any U.S. government messaging often loses its legitimacy because it’s coming from the U.S. government. So I think what we should really be doing is investing in enabling moderate Muslims throughout the world to counter this message.
“The U.S. can do some things. But we’re not good at it….So we’ve got to give the technology and the tools to community groups who do want to counter this message. And simultaneously, we have to have a law enforcement, intelligence presence to monitor. Understand that we can’t monitor everyone. And we have to really continue to work with technology companies to make sure that information can be monitored pursuant to the law.”
‘People need to be alert’
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that it’s a “real misconception” that the federal government is able to track every threat made by terrorists on social media:
“There is a real misperception that the federal government has perfect knowledge, that we are just — you’re providing surveillance or conducting surveillance on everybody who might be a suspect, and we have perfect knowledge.
“I know individuals trying to engage those communities are pretty surprised that the individuals of those communities believe we have that perfect information. We don’t. And so the bottom line is, people do need to be alert. If you see something, you do have to say something.”
According to Johnson, “Our best line of defense, trying to keep this nation safe and secure, is an effective intelligence-gathering capability, with robust congressional oversight. And this is what should give people comfort. Protecting civil liberties is not a partisan issue. From the extreme right to the extreme left and everywhere in between, we all want to guard and protect American civil liberties. But we also have to keep this nation safe and secure.”
Johnson noted that one of the witnesses at a congressional hearing estimated that there are anywhere from 46,000 to 90,000 “overt ISIS support accounts” on Twitter.
“Now, Twitter is starting to shut those things down, but just consider maybe 90,000 people drawn to this barbaric ideology. So, we have got a very large haystack. We’re looking for a needle in it.”
With all those Islamic State sympathizers out there, “how do you track them all?” he asked.
“The FBI has less than 15,000 field agents. And all those field agents aren’t concentrating solely on the threat of Islamic terror. There’s all kinds of different domestic crimes that the FBI has to trace and track and try and keep track of.
“So, again, you have to go back to the root cause. And, right now, the root cause is that ISIS was allowed to rise from the ashes of al Qaeda in Iraq. We are not adequately defeating them. We are not conveying to the extent they are weakened, but as long as they control territory, as long as they have this caliphate, that’s going to be continue to inspire this type of activity, which is why we have got to get back to that root cause and we actually need to defeat ISIS.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/dhs-secretary-not-necessarily-government-objective-counter-terrorists
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