GCTF – FTF - 18 May 2017
It is my great pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of both the Netherlands
and our co-chair the Kingdom of Morocco, to the plenary meeting of the
Foreign Terrorist Fighters Working Group of the Global Counterterrorism
Forum (GCTF).
I had the honour of welcoming you to our second meeting back in June
2015, here in The Hague. Today, two years later, we are gathered for the
last meeting under Dutch and Moroccan leadership.
So it’s time to take stock, reflect on our achievements and look ahead.
Ladies and gentlemen,
According to last month’s edition of the journal Foreign Affairs, ‘Good
Foreign Policy is invisible’.
Most diplomats would agree, I’m sure. But there’s a difficult paradox here:
we live in a time when politicians and diplomats alike are held accountable
for visible results. Especially after a terrorist attack.
The same article goes on to say that good foreign policy ‘often means paying
up front for benefits that are hard to see until you lose them, or that will
only be obvious when you really need them’.
I think we can all agree that this paradox applies to the fight against
terrorism and the work of the GCTF.
What kind of visible impact have we had? Are we really making the world a
safer place? And can we prove it to the world in concrete terms?
As we all know, our results and solutions are extremely necessary, and
they’re more concrete than many think. But they are rarely acknowledged.
Paradoxically, the more successful we are at preventing radicalisation and
terrorism, the less attention our efforts receive.
Preventing attacks through capacity building… Well, it’s not exactly headlinegrabbing news. It’s a bit like healthcare: the paramedic who saves the
stroke victim gets more credit than the doctor who advocates a healthy diet.
The work of the GCTF is just like the work of diplomacy. It rarely gets media
coverage, yet it contributes directly to making us and society safer, every
day. By preventing attacks, your work has a direct impact on people’s lives.
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GCTF – FTF - 18 May 2017
And in this working group, over the past few years, we’ve achieved a great
deal to be proud of.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The core challenge of this working group is addressing the threat of foreign
terrorist fighters.
These are often young people, travelling abroad to Syria and Iraq to join the
so-called Caliphate. They’ve left their parents, their friends, their jobs and
schools. To seek adventure, or to find a sense of belonging. Some may
indeed find what they’re looking for. But most find only death and
destruction. And hardship from which there is little escape.
A lot has happened in the past three years. We’ve been shaken by attacks
close to home and further afield. Highly visible attacks that have been
covered extensively in the media.
It’s sobering to realise that almost all the countries here have been hit hard
by terrorism in the past three years: Islamabad, Istanbul, Paris, London,
Stockholm, Berlin, Abuja, Brussels, Jakarta. And of course, the recent
attack, on Palm Sunday, in Egypt, which killed 47 and wounded more than a
hundred.
These attacks strike at the very heart of our societies.
You understand better than most the importance of our invisible work. The
work that goes on behind the scenes, aimed at preventing attacks. Today I
want to focus on the vital role played by the GCTF, and specifically the FTF
working group, in preventing even worse atrocities.
I can’t list all the group’s achievements. But I will highlight a few, following
the thematic lines I’ve used before: Share, Stop and Secure. And say a few
words about how to extend our work into the future.
Share, Stop and Secure: these were the themes of the unique FTF joint
meeting between the GCTF and the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, which
was held in The Hague on 11 January 2016. We decided we needed to Share
information, Stop fighters from travelling to conflict zones or returning from
them, and work to Secure our societies. Here are some measures of the
progress we’ve made:
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Share: At least 60 countries now contribute foreign terrorist fighter profiles
to INTERPOL, and so does the United Nations. Currently, there are over
16,000 such profiles in the INTERPOL case analysis file. That’s quite an
achievement: at the start of our working group, there were fewer than one
thousand.
Stop: The flow of foreign terrorist fighters worldwide has slowed
considerably. The estimated number still in Syria and Iraq has dropped from
30,000 at its highest point to around 10,000 today: the lowest level in more
than two-and-a-half years. This is due to fewer people joining up and more
fighters being killed in the military campaign against ISIS. We have targeted
the sources of funding for FTFs. ISIS’s ‘Caliphate’ is losing its appeal. We are
also beating ISIS when it comes to counter messaging: the ratio of anti-ISIS
to pro-ISIS content online is 6 to 1. I’d like to thank Turkey in particular for
stepping up its efforts to fight terrorism, stop fighters from crossing borders
and cut off key financial channels.
Secure: At least 60 countries have drafted or improved legislation to
prosecute and arrest FTFs. 65 countries have arrested and prosecuted
foreign fighters. We need to use our criminal justice systems and the rule of
law to keep our societies safe. This working group is a great source of
information to that end.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The importance of sharing information cannot be over emphasised. My own
country has benefited greatly from increased information sharing.
Collectively we’re doing a good job. And we need to get the message out
there. Fortunately, more and more news outlets are reporting on plots that
have been prevented and terrorist cells that have been rolled up.
Without the GCTF, all these efforts would never have been coordinated in
the efficient and practical way we have jointly established.
That’s why I call on you all to continue contributing to this shared wealth of
experience, information and expertise. So that we can continue learning
from each other. We will have to if we want to stay ahead of the curve. If we
want to beat this ever-changing, many-headed monster.
We’ve seen that monster mutate over the past few years.
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GCTF – FTF - 18 May 2017
First, there was FTF 1.0: people travelling from their home country to Syria
or Iraq. In the early phases it was mainly young men searching for
adventure, seeking a purpose in life or wanting to fight for a Caliphate they
believed was worth committing gruesome acts for.
Once they arrived, we saw images of them on Facebook, Twitter and
Telegram. They posed waving flags and guns, sometimes burning their
passports. They received intensive military training and committed horrific
attacks in the fight to defend the crumbling caliphate. No continent was
immune from the threat. I don’t need to remind you of the foreign fighters
who joined al Shabaab in Africa, for instance, or the FTF threat in Southeast
Asia.
Then we saw FTF 2.0: a threat posed by returnees and the spread of foreign
terrorist ideologies. Fewer people were moving now, but violent ideologies
were still crossing borders and couldn’t easily be stopped. Today these ideas
are influencing our own citizens. And further radicalising those jihadists
who’ve already fought and returned or stayed behind at home.
This phase presented its own dilemmas. What should the role of our
embassies be in facilitating return? How far are we willing to go to get
people back? Have these extremists changed their views or do they pose a
real risk to society? Are they working for ISIS? Or can they be reintegrated
into society, once they’ve been tried and served their sentence?
Increasingly in the future, we will face the dilemma of what to do about our
FTF nationals being held by ISIS or other factions against their will. They will
seek consular assistance, and we will be under mounting pressure to help or
even extract them. We need to make sure we coordinate our approach.
We recently facilitated the return of one of our nationals, Reda N., but only
after he reached the Turkish border. I would like to thank the Turkish
authorities for their cooperation. This highlights the need for timely
information-sharing at the borders.
FTF 3.0. Now we’re seeing a third iteration of the threat: more and more
small-scale attacks on our own soil, using everyday items like cars and
kitchen knives. The recent attacks in Paris, London and Berlin were carried
out by lone attackers inspired by terrorist ideologies. These are reminders
that we need to remain vigilant and active. ISIS is quick to claim
responsibility for such attacks, in order to sow fear and bolster the myth of
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their omnipotence. These attackers may not fit the strict ‘FTF’ label (they
stayed at home), but they tapped into FTF networks and benefited from their
skills and resources.
Perhaps most alarmingly, more and more attacks are designed to drive a
wedge between different segments of society. Or even to influence elections
by polarising the political debate. We have to ensure that political terrorism
doesn’t become the next manifestation of violent extremism.
These of course are just a few examples. As I’ve said before, terrorism is
like a virus. We will probably never wipe it out entirely. We need to stay
ahead of the curve and anticipate its evolution. Here, again, cooperation and
information-sharing are essential. ISIS keeps innovating, and so must we.
Let me stress something: terror and innovation are a very dangerous
combination of aims and means. We need to prevent the nightmare scenario
of terrorists using chemical and biological weapons, possibly with the help of
commercial drones. Terrorists may possess low-grade forms of chemical or
biological agents. Even if they can’t kill large numbers of people, they could
successfully spread fear throughout our societies.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have to be realistic: the issue of returning fighters is here to stay. We
have to be prepared for yet another ‘season of terrorism’. And these trends
will remain complex and dynamic:
•
First: Lower numbers of foreign terrorist fighters do not necessarily
mean a lower risk. In a recent public report, the Dutch General
Intelligence and Security Service argued that, in the future, returning
fighters are likely to pose an even greater threat. They will have been
in the combat zone longer. They will be more battle-hardened and
traumatised. They will have developed extremist networks. They pose
a serious risk, and their activities could range from radicalising and
recruiting others to planning and carrying out attacks. Our national
authorities are gravely concerned about these ‘FTFs on the move’. We
need to stay vigilant and keep investing in stronger border security
and effective information-sharing mechanisms.
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GCTF – FTF - 18 May 2017
•
•
Second: Although we’ve successfully prevented potential foreign
fighters from reaching their destinations, it turns out there’s another
group we need to deal with: ‘home-grown’ terrorists. They’re already at
their destinations: our cities, which are also their cities. So we now need
to broaden our focus. Where we used to concentrate on stopping
terrorists at the border, we now also need to spot and support
vulnerable young people in our cities. We need to give them and their
families the support they need to resist extremist ideology. We need to
invest in the social fabric and the resilience of our societies – that is
extremely important.
Third: Networks. We need our own network to beat their network. The
nexus between terrorism and organised crime is growing and this is an
alarming development. We’ve seen this in many attacks. Several of
the perpetrators in Brussels – and also the attacker in Nice – had a
criminal record.
This is an area we’ll need to focus on more in the coming period. The
more we succeed in taking back territory from ISIS, cutting off its
funds from the sale of oil and artefacts and preventing weapons from
reaching them, the more they will seek cooperation with criminal
networks.
ISIS is now embracing the criminals they once despised, because they can
deliver the weapons, money, drugs and personnel that ISIS needs. This is a
toxic partnership that we need to detect early and stop in its tracks.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In closing, let me repeat that the power of our collaboration lies in sharing
experiences, expertise and information on highly sensitive issues - in a
professional, consistent and coherent manner. And making clear to the
public what we’re doing. Before the GCTF, this kind of collaboration was
inconceivable. That’s a big achievement in itself. And all the more reason to
keep information-sharing at the top of the agenda.
That’s the only way we will be able to stay ahead of the curve. The only way
our Stop, Share and Secure approach will continue to be effective. And the
only way we will stay on top of the new trends I’ve described. Let’s get as
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far ahead of the curve as we can: it’s impossible to overstate the importance
of prevention at the source. We need to address the root causes of
radicalisation and seek political solutions in countries mired in conflict, like
Syria and Libya. It’s cheaper and more sustainable in the long run.
In a counterterrorism environment where the emphasis seems to be shifting
towards a harder approach – from countering to combating; from extremists
to jihadists – we need to strive for a balanced, whole-of-government
approach, ensuring sufficient focus on prevention. Otherwise we’ll just be
cutting off another head of the Hydra. When the Netherlands takes its seat
on the UN Security Council in 2018, this will be the core of our approach to
counterterrorism.
My country remains committed to working within the GCTF towards this
goal. And so, together with Morocco, we’ve launched the ambitious ‘five Rs’
agenda: results, resources, relations, reinforcement and renewal. We will
continue working to share and publicise the results we achieve. We will also
work to shape the new themes of Spot and Support, to help the GCTF stay
ahead of the curve and counter the ever-evolving terrorist threat.
And that’s why I’m glad to announce that, together with our Moroccan
colleagues, we intend to pursue a second term as Co-Chairs of the GCTF.
We hope we can count on your support.
Thank you.
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