New York Foreign Press Center Briefing with Acting Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Nathan A. Sales on “U.S. Policy in Countering Terrorism”

Transcript

Washington so we may receive questions from there. The transcript will be posted at fpc.state.gov. If you ask a question we’ll pass you the microphone and please start off by giving us your name and your outlet before asking your questions and just please silence your cell phones before we get started. And with that, over to you.

Thanks very much, I’d like to thank you all for being here today. My name’s Ambassador Nathan Sales and I’m the Counter-Terrorism Coordinator at the State Department. The United States is pursuing a robust counter-terrorism agenda here in New York at the UN General Assembly this week and we’ve made some important progress on a number of fronts with our partners. I’m gonna provide a brief overview today on the issues we’ve been focusing on and be happy to take some questions afterwards. First, foreign terrorist fighters, or FTF’s, in northwestern Syria are among the most critical needs that need to be addressed quickly and resolutely. There’s currently more than 2,000 FTF’s held in detention facilities. Another 70,000 associated family members are living in displaced persons camps in the region. From the possibility of fighters breaking out to rejoin the battle, to ongoing efforts by ISIS to radicalize women and children in camps, this has the potential to be a disaster in the making. The United States has been clear that the best solution is for governments to take their citizens back. Repatriation to countries of origin, followed by effective prosecution, rehabilitation, reintegration is the best way to ensure that these dangerous individuals cannot return to the battlefield. The United States is leading by example and is bringing our own citizens home. We’ve charged six adults with a variety of crimes and we’ve also repatriated a number of children. While some of our partners, including Kazakhstan, Morocco, and North Macedonia have stepped up to repatriate their nationals, many have not. In particular we call on the nations of western Europe which have well developed legal and social systems in place to address these challenges to repatriate and prosecute their citizens. Second, much of the work we’ve been doing this week focuses on combating terrorist travel. The Global Counter-Terrorism Form, or GCTF, this week endorsed good practices that the United States developed along with Morocco to help countries build effective screening systems, including the use of biometrics and airline reservation data to detect terrorists attempting to cross borders. The document builds on UN Security Council Resolution 2396, the most important resolution on terrorist travel that the UN has ever adopted and provides countries with a roadmap on how to more effectively use these critical counter-terrorism tools. Third, the United States stands with the international community in condemning and countering terrorist use of the internet. The horrific terrorist attacks against mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, as well as recent attacks here in the United States speak to the power, influence, and lethality of terrorism no matter what corrupt ideology is claimed by the perpetrators. The United States is committed to the freedom of speech and expression and we know that the most effective way to counter bad speech is with good speech, speech that promotes tolerance and understanding. Thus we emphasize the importance of promoting credible, alternative narratives as the primary means by which we can undermine terrorist messaging. In closing, I would note that as the United States and our partners continue to exert tremendous pressure on our terrorist enemies, our enemies are adapting, and that means we need to adapt too. The Trump administration took an important step forward in that effort earlier this month when the President signed a landmark new executive order that significantly updates our counter-terrorism sanctions authorities. Designations are one of the most important tools we have to cut off a flow of money to our enemies and to respond to an ever evolving threat. We’ve already begun to use this new tool aggressively. The State Department and Treasury Department have jointly designated 28 individuals and entities associated with groups like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Hezbollah. Thank you for being here, I’d be happy to take your questions. Yeah?

[Alex] Thank you for doing this, my name is Alexei Bogdanos Kianvos, RIA Novosti Russia news agency. Do you have a rough breakdown of how many persons have been repatriated by other countries? And so being from Russia I’m interested in what do you have discussions with Russian authorities on repatriations of Russian citizens, thank you.

Thank you very much. Well the answer is not enough. A number of countries have shown admirable leadership in repatriating fighters from Syria and the family members, I would particularly single out Kazakhstan as a true leader in this field, but far too many countries are sitting on the sidelines. We think that nations that have established rule of law traditions, nations that have deep pockets, and the financial resources to address this problem are the ones that should be leading the world by example. And so we’re calling on our allies and partners to take those citizens back. As far as Russia’s involvement in this issue in particular, I would just note that yesterday the United States co-hosted an event under the auspices of the Global Counter-terrorism Form on this very issue and it was co-hosted by a number of countries including Russia so we believe that Moscow is focusing on this issue as well.

[Audience Member] Thank you Ambassador, I’m Kak Shuvashuvanariz, Azad Soch Punjabi newspaper, as you know this morning the UN Secretary Council discussed on counter-terrorism and there seems to be huge gap among countries and what the difference between the US counter-terrorism and Chinese counter-terrorism, thank you.

Well I think the most important difference is that the United States fights terrorism by using a rule of law approach that respects fundamental rights and liberties including the right to religious freedom, which is fundamental to who we are as a people in the United States and is also a foundational part of the international legal system ratified in a number of international conventions in UN documents. The United States has been very clear about our concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s decision to inter more than a million Muslims, ethnic Uyghurs, Kyrgyz, Kazak’s and other citizens of China who’ve been put into camps for no reason other than their religion. We don’t think that this is effective counter-terrorism, we think this is nothing more than religious repression, it’s not going to be an affective way of defeating groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and Hezbollah.

Thank you so much for your time.