Beyond Predator Strikes: Defeating al Qaeda by Attacking Terrorist Recruitment and Radicalization

As U.S. and allied forces ramp up efforts to seek out and strike terrorists in the Afghanistan border region, Osama bin Laden and the rest of al Qaeda central are hanging by a thread—dangerous and determined, but depleted daily by lethal missile and special operations strikes.

Public opinion in Arab and Muslim nations has turned sharply against bin Laden and his movement’s use of suicide bombings, which increasingly target innocent Muslim men, women and children. The war in Iraq, once a source of strength for al Qaeda recruitment, no longer serves the terrorist narrative.

As the kinetic war rages and al Qaeda is further isolated and besieged, a window of opportunity has emerged to deliver a decisive blow against the terrorist threat. Al Qaeda’s ability to recruit and radicalize new terrorists capable of promoting violent extremism and self-initiating plots remains its lifeline. Cutting off al Qaeda’s capacity to promote its jihadist message and replenish its ranks will hasten its demise.

Counter-radicalization efforts are not a substitute for aggressive capture and kill operations striking at terrorists where they live and plot or for robust homeland security and border protections. But they are no less urgent or necessary if we are going to defeat al Qaeda.

In this memo, Third Way argues that we have reached a critical juncture in the fight against terrorism and that the U.S. and its allies must double-down on efforts to attack this terrorist recruitment lifeline and build on the battlefield momentum in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Attacking Terrorist Recruitment and Radicalization

Engagement and Outreach—meaningful discourse and interaction with the Muslim world weakens the terrorist narrative

The Obama administration has made considerable strides at rebuilding U.S. standing with the Muslim-majority nations around an agenda of common interests, in the process rejecting the false narrative of terrorists that the West is at war with Islam. A policy of sustained engagement establishes a broad foundation of cooperation that promotes a positive agenda in contrast with al Qaeda’s message of violence.

Engagement with the Muslim community inside the U.S. must be strengthened as well, particularly in the aftermath of the incendiary rhetoric in the Park 51 debate and the Florida Koran burning spectacle. There has been a number of positive initiatives at the federal level designed to build mutual trust between the government and Muslim communities in combating radicalization and terrorist recruitment, including the outreach work of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Office and the local partnerships established under the FBI’s expanded Joint Terrorism Task Force program. Incidents of intolerance and bigotry directly affect American security by fostering an environment for radicalization, reducing Muslim cooperation with law enforcement, and undermining our troops fighting in Afghanistan (see Third Way’s The Real Security Costs of Anti-Muslim Rhetoric, September 2010).

• The creation of non-governmental groups, not aligned with any religious organization, but dedicated to promoting religious freedom and challenging extremism, would be a valuable bridge between the efforts of law enforcement and local mosques to identify early warning signs of violent extremism. The London-based Quilliam, self-described as the “world’s first counter-extremism think tank,” works with British law enforcement and Muslim community leaders to educate the public and address grievances that could lead to radicalization. Establishing organizations in the U.S. based on the Quilliam model would enhance local cooperation and trust and significantly strengthen efforts to prevent homegrown terrorism.
• April’s Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship brought together Muslim business representatives to advance economic opportunity and social change, a nexus that should be at the heart of future events and a cornerstone of the U.S. development assistance program.

Freedom and Moderation—lifting foreign censorship and promoting moderate voices overseas counters extremism and intolerance

As radicalization spreads in countries with sizeable Muslim and Arab populations, moderate voices, both religious and secular, are being increasingly suppressed, criminalized and extinguished. Censorship and other government and cultural barriers limiting the publication and expression of constructive content remove an effective counter-weight to the propagation of extremism.

• Lifting these restrictions and safeguarding freedom of expression must be a high priority in the U.S. diplomatic agenda and the targeting of foreign aid. The State Department should report annually to Congress those recipient countries where intellectual repression exists and identify benchmarks for its remediation.

Renunciation and Isolation—isolating terrorists as criminals at war with Islam and fellow Muslims is an effective means of undercutting jihadist rhetoric

The engine often driving radicalization is the false belief that fidelity to faith requires the perpetration of violence. When Saudi Arabia’s top religious leaders unanimously issued a fatwa this May denouncing terrorism and condemning those who carry out and support these attacks as criminals, it was a powerful pronouncement spoken by conservative Muslims clerics to fellow Muslims. It was a direct, authoritative repudiation of al Qaeda’s twisting of the Islamic faith into something it is not: a mandate for murder.

Researchers who have examined violent extremism have found a remarkable correlation between radicalization and the lack of Islamic education. According to Azeem Ibrahim at Harvard’s Kennedy School, researchers estimate that nearly 90% of violent extremists studied had no religious training or education. Authentic Islamic education, he notes, can play an important role at staunching radicalization and preventing violence.

The Saudi fatwa that terrorism is forbidden by Islamic law and is a criminal act must be the impetus behind a broader, more public campaign depicting terrorists as criminals at war with Islam.

• A coordinated campaign of Islamic leaders, both in the U.S. and abroad, speaking forcefully in renouncing terrorism in the name of faith would negate a key driver in the radicalization process and flip the jihadist narrative back on the terrorists. Incorporating the recantations of former jihadists into this campaign would further isolate the extremist messaging as being anathema to tenets of Islam.

Empowerment and Cooperation—building capacity of foreign partners is the first line of defense in depriving terrorism a foothold

We must have foreign partners willing to work with the U.S. to attack the root causes of extremism and who are committed to being intolerant of terrorists operating inside their country. Efforts in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere have been largely ad hoc and reactive, driven by the need to move militarily against an established and formidable terrorist presence. A broader coalition of foreign partners who recognize the self- and shared-interest of aggressively moving against terrorists is needed. Too many nations have security forces that lack the tools and training to effectively root out terrorist organizations within their borders.

• As the U.S. charts a new way forward on global development, security cooperation must be a considered factor in prioritizing aid recipients and calibrating levels of assistance.
• There also needs to be a new paradigm for training foreign military and security forces that learns from the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan experiences, one which is less ad hoc, less contractor-based, and more pre-emptive. NATO should play an expanded role in this mission, given its resources and expertise (see Third Way’s Reforming Foreign Security Training to Help Defeat Terrorism, July 2010).
• In addition to expanding and building the capacity of our foreign partners, there needs to be greater coordination and unity of effort among nations in regions where the terrorist presence has established a foothold. The State Department-led Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership should serve as a model for the creation of additional regional counterterrorism partnerships where violent extremism foments.

The TSCP, formed in 2005 and supported by the Pentagon’s Africa Command and the U.S. Agency for International Development, brings together Nigeria, Senegal, and the seven Maghreb and Sahel nations to enhance regional cooperation in combating terrorism and discrediting extremist ideology. This partnership has matured and carried out this past May a three week military operation targeting al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which included the participation of Britain, France, Germany and Spain.