MODERATOR: Hello, good afternoon.
I’m the director at the Foreign Press Center.
I welcome you today.
Today we have Ambassador Nathan Sales, who’s
the Coordinator for Counterterrorism and the
Acting Under Secretary for Civilian Security,
Democracy, and Human Rights at the Department
of State.
He’s here to discuss U.S. priorities for
counterterrorism.
This will be a short briefing.
We have limited time.
It is on the record.
It will be livestreamed, and we are connected
digitally to our sister center in 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.
MR SALES: Thanks very much.
I’d like to thank you all for being here
today.
My name is Ambassador Nathan Sales and I’m
the Counterterrorism Coordinator at the State
Department.
The United States is pursuing a robust counterterrorism
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 going to provide a brief overview today
on the issues we’ve been focusing on.
I’d be happy to take some questions afterwards.
First, foreign terrorist fighters, or FTFs,
in northeastern Syria are among the most critical
needs that need to be addressed quickly and
resolutely.
There’s currently more than 2,000 FTFs 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 Counterterrorism Forum, 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 counterterrorism
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 counterterrorism
sanctions authorities.
Designations are one of the most important
tools we have to cut off the 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-Qaida, and Hizballah.
Thank you for being here.
I’d be happy take your questions.
Yeah.
MODERATOR: Hold on, let me give you a mike.
QUESTION: Thank you for doing this.
My name is Alexey Bogdanovsky.
I’m with RIA Novosti, the Russian news agency.
Do you have a rough breakdown of how many
persons have been repatriated by the other
countries?
And being from Russia, I’m interested in
whether you have discussions with Russian
authorities on repatriations of Russian citizens.
Thank you.
AMBASSADOR SALES: 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 their 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 Counterterrorism
Forum 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.
QUESTION: Thank you, Ambassador.
I’m Gakushi Fujiwara with Asahi Shimbun,
Japanese newspaper.
As you know, this morning the UN Security
Council discussed on counterterrorism and
there seems to be huge gap among countries.
And what the difference by the U.S. counterterrorism
and Chinese counterterrorism?
Thank you.
AMBASSADOR SALES: 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 and
UN documents.
The United States has been very clear about
our concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s
decision to intern more than a million Muslims,
ethnic Uighurs, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, and other
citizens of China who have been put into camps
for no reason other than their religion.
We don’t think that this is effective counterterrorism.
We think this is nothing more than religious
repression.
It’s not going to be an effective way of
defeating groups like ISIS and al-Qaida and
Hizballah.
MODERATOR: Any other questions?
Okay, thank you so much for your time.
As I said, the transcript will be posted at
fpc.state.gov, and thanks for coming.
