US Government “Terrorist Families” Test: Don’t Flunk It
The U. S. government has produced a questionnaire for:
- local law enforcement officials,
- medical & religious leaders
to use in evaluating local families.
Are you, your family or your community at risk of turning to violent extremism?
That’s the premise behind a rating system devised by the National Counter-terrorism Center, according to a document marked For Official Use Only and obtained by The Intercept.
The document - and the rating system - is part of a wider strategy for Countering Violent Extremism, which calls for local community and religious leaders to work together with law enforcement and other government agencies.
The White House has made this approach a centerpiece of its response to terrorist attacks around the world and in the wake of the Paris attacks, announced plans to host an international summit on Countering Violent Extremism on February 18th.
The rating system, part of a 36-page document dated May 2014 and titled “Countering Violent Extremism: A Guide for Practitioners and Analysts,” suggests that:
- police,
- social workers,
- educators,
- medical professioanals
rate individuals on a scale of 1 to 5 in categories such as:
- “Expressions of Hopelessness, Futility,”
- “Talk of Harming Self or Others,” and
- “Connection to Group Identity (Race, Nationality, Religion, Ethnicity).”
The ranking system is supposed to alert government officials to:
- individuals at risk of turning to radical violence, and to
- families or
- communities at risk of incubating extremist ideologies.
Families are judged on factors such as:
- “Aware[ness] of Each Other’s Activities,” as well as
- levels of “Parent-Child Bonding,” and
- communities are rated by access to health care and social services, in addition to
- “presence of ideologues or recruiters” as potential risk factors.
A low score in any of these categories would indicate a high risk of “susceptibility to engage in violent extremism,”
according to the document.
It encourages users of the guide to plot the scores on a graph to determine what “interventions” could halt the process of radicalization before it happens.
I am wondering which religious leaders are going to cooperate with this project?
Think of this as a project for the Stassi Council of Churches.
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Written by Gary North; continue Reading on firstlook.org
