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Radicalization

Whether facilitated by the Internet, fostered in prisons or al Qaeda training centers, radicalization knows no boundaries. HSPI is contributing to a better understanding of methods and programs to counter radicalization in these settings, in part by helping to educate about factors that may spur an individual to cross the line from radical thought into violent action.

HSPI Publications

Reflections on Jihad: A Former Leader's Perspective, An In-depth Conversation with Noman Benotman
Frank J. Cilluffo and F. Jordan Evert
October 16, 2009

Radicalization: Made in the USA?
Dr. Matthew Levitt
HSPI Commentary
June 2, 2009

How to Beat al Qaeda at Its Own Game
Frank J. Cilluffo and Daniel Kimmage
ForeignPolicy.com Web Exclusive
April 2009

Rewriting the Narrative: An Integrated Strategy for Counterradicalization
Matthew Levitt, HSPI Senior Fellow; Frank J. Cilluffo, Task Force member
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
March 2009

Radicalization: Behind Bars and Beyond Borders
Frank J. Cilluffo, Sharon L. Cardash and Andrew J. Whitehead
The Brown Journal of World Affairs
Spring/Summer 2007

HSPI/CIAG Report on Internet-Facilitated Radicalization, "NETworked Radicalization: A Counter-Strategy"
May 3, 2007

Report of the Future of Terrorism Task Force
Homeland Security Advisory Council
Lee Hamilton, Chairman; Frank J. Cilluffo, Vice Chairman
January 2007

HSPI/CIAG release report on prisoner radicalization entitled, "Out of the Shadows: Getting Ahead of Prisoner Radicalization"
September 19, 2006

HSPI Testimony & Presentations

“Radicalization/De-radicalization: Lessons for the Next U.S. President,” hosted by the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation, Washington, D.C. Director Frank Cilluffo discussed successes and challenges in efforts by the United States and its partners to counter radicalization and highlighted key lessons learned for the next administration as part of an expert panel discussion on December 4, 2008.

International Crime Science Conference, London, United Kingdom. Director Frank Cilluffo discussed the threat of radicalization in the U.S. and a range of preventative measures as part of a broad panel discussion on “Terrorism prevention and radicalization” on July 17, 2008.

Religious Discrimination and Prisoners’ Rights
Statement of Frank J. Cilluffo
Before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
February 8, 2008

Assessing and Addressing the Threat: Defining the Role of a National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism
Statement of Frank J. Cilluffo
Before the Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee
June 14, 2007

The Internet: A Portal to Violent Islamist Extremism
Statement of Frank J. Cilluffo
Before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
May 3, 2007

The Homeland Security Implications of Radicalization
Statement of Frank J. Cilluffo
Before the Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee
September 20, 2006

Prisoner Radicalization: Are Terrorist Cells Forming in U.S. Cell Blocks?
Statement of Frank J. Cilluffo
Before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
September 19, 2006

Religious Radicalization Behind Bars
Statement of Gregory B. Saathoff, Senior Fellow
Before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
September 19, 2006

HSPI Events

“Extremist Rehabilitation in Saudi Arabia” featuring Dr. Christopher Boucek, Associate, Middle East Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. HSPI Policy & Research Forum event, October 2, 2008.

“Countering Radicalization in Europe” featuring Dr. Peter Neumann, Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, King's College London. HSPI Policy & Research Forum event, August 5, 2008.

“Words Matter: The Role of Lexicon in Counter-Terrorism Communications Strategy” featuring Jonathan Allen, head of the United Kingdom government's Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU); Daniel Sutherland, Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the US Department of Homeland Security; and Jeffrey Imm, research director for the Counterterrorism Blog and former analyst with the Federal Bureau of Investigation; HSPI Policy & Research Forum event, June 24, 2008.

“Uniting Against Extremism” featuring Maajid Nawaz, Director, The Quilliam Foundation (UK). HSPI Policy & Research Forum event, July 11, 2008.

HSPI Hosts Professor Kumar Ramakrishna, Head of the Centre of Excellence for National Security, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore. HSPI Policy & Research Forum event, May 22, 2008.

HSPI in the News

Plot renews fears of radical Islam in prison
Associated Press
May 22, 2009
Just as young people can be radicalized by "cut-and-paste" readings of the Quran on the Internet, new inmates may get a distorted view of Islam from gang leaders or other influential inmates, according to "Out of the Shadows: Getting Ahead of Prison Radicalization," a 2006 report by the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute and the University of Virginia Critical Incident Analysis Group.  Several imams used the term "Jailhouse Islam" to describe a form of Islam in prison that incorporates gang loyalty and violence, the report said.

Homegrown Terror Suspects Turned Toward Radicalism in U.S. Prisons
Fox News
May 22, 2009
Prison Islam is "the convergence of prison culture and violence into religious practice," said Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. Often lacking an imam or other religious leader to instruct them, inmates will distort Islam for themselves to embrace prison values like violence and gang loyalty.  And while religious conversion is rehabilitative for the vast majority of inmates, Cilluffo said, Prison Islam can lead them down a much more dangerous path. Charismatic leaders can recruit prisoners to their cause and further swell the ranks of the radicals. Cilluffo noted that conversion is a positive experience for the vast majority who take up the religion. But it doesn't take large numbers to pose a substantial threat to America, he said.  "The reality is you don't need many people. One is arguably too much."

Getting inside the terrorist cell
WABC-TV
May 21, 2009
“Prisons have been breeding grounds for radical thoughts and views for centuries," said Frank Cilluffo of the Homeland Security Policy Institute.  "You have a captive audience, you have a group more susceptible to extremists views and those who can manipulate that environment can do an awful lot...I'm more concerned about a charismatic leader who can distort a religion and sadly when dealing with terrorism the numbers don't have to be high.”

Counter-narrative vital to fight terrorism
United Press International
April 15, 2009
This report on a recent ForeignPolicy.com essay by HSPI director Frank J. Cilluffo and senior fellow Daniel Kimmage highlights the need for Washington and the international community to make a concerted effort to control the narrative in the battle against al-Qaida in the information age. For example, the report notes the authors back a "strong counter-narrative" to highlight the destruction that terrorist acts causes not only to their victims but to society as a whole.

Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age, Part 2
MediaShift (PBS)
March 5, 2009
In a report on how public diplomacy may be one avenue to prevent large scale online attacks, HSPI director Frank J. Cilluffo notes that without effectual public diplomacy gains, the specter of cyber-terrorism will grow more vivid as a new digitally savvy generation of would-be terrorists comes of age.

Rewriting the Narrative: An Integrated Strategy for Counterradicalization
Counterterrorism Blog
February 27, 2009
A post by HSPI Senior Fellow Matthew Levitt of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) notes that HSPI director Frank J. Cilluffo endorsed “Rewriting the Narrative: An Integrated Strategy for Counterradicalization,” the final report of WINNEP’s Task Force on Confronting the Ideology of Radical Extremism. The report is the result of a bipartisan, blue-ribbon commission of diplomats, legislators, strategists, scholars, and experts in which Cilluffo served on.

Al Qaeda suspect, held in U.S. for 7 years, became recruitment tool for terror group - officials
New York Daily News
January 28, 2009
HSPI director Frank J. Cilluffo is noted among a group of intelligence and counterterrorism experts for signing a brief filed with the Supreme Court in the case of Ali Saleh al-Marri, accused of acting as an Al Qaeda “sleeper” agent within the U.S.

9 alumni of rehab for jihadists re-arrested
The New York Times
January 27, 2009
In discussing Saudi Arabia’s terrorist rehabilitation program, HSPI director Frank J. Cilluffo notes a program that doesn't work all the time is better than none because the alternative is an extended prison sentence, which only further radicalizes a person.

Time to ‘Reset Our Thinking’ Says HS Policy Institute’s Cilluffo
Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security
November 24, 2008
HSPI Director Frank Cilluffo shares his thoughts on the challenges facing President-elect Barack Obama and what some possible responses to those challenges might be. Cilluffo says the United States needs to recalibrate the way we look at the enemy, more as “thugs” and “criminals” than warriors.

History and Geography Help Guide Spain’s Anti-Terror Policies
Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security
November 12, 2008
The long experience of Spain in dealing with terrorism, as well as its history of dictatorship, has led the government to tread lightly on civil liberties in the fight against extremism. In a talk at HSPI, Spanish Ambassador Jorge Dezcallar provided some comparisons to the U.S. approach.

Saudis Getting ‘Intriguing Results’ With De-Radicalization Program
Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security
October 7, 2008
This article discusses Saudi Arabia’s de-radicalization program and whether or not it works. Speaking at an HSPI forum, Dr. Christopher Boucek, a researcher at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace, called the results “very positive and very intriguing,” though others disagree.

Security chief decries 'war on terror'
Financial Times
May 28, 2008
“Frank Cilluffo, a terrorism expert at George Washington University and former special assistant to Mr Bush for homeland security, says the US government can take a series of steps to help counter al-Qaeda. He agrees that the US should abandon the concept of a ‘war on terror’ – which ’fuels the adversaries narrative’ – and ‘decouple religion from ideology.’”

Gap opens between Al Qaeda and allies
Los Angeles Times
April 24, 2008
HSPI Director Frank Cilluffo comments on internal dissent and criticism within Al Qaeda. "’It has raised the bar in using violence to achieve its objectives, and people are starting to ask a lot of hard questions. It is losing popular support,’ he said. ‘It is occurring within the strategic thinkers, but also among the rank and file.’"

Reverse Radicalization
Time Magazine
March 2008
“Nearly a dozen countries, including the U.S. in Iraq, have recently started programs to educate radicals about the gap between their religious ideals and the groups they follow—to essentially force the disenchantment process with the help of clerics and ex-terrorists. ‘We've been fighting the wrong battle,’ says Frank Cilluffo, a former White House Homeland Security official who is researching deradicalization at George Washington University. ‘The real center of gravity of the enemy is their narrative. It is ideologically bankrupt.’”

SXSW Live Blogging: Online Extremism - And the Muslims Who Fight It
UnMassed
March 8, 2008 .
HSPI Director Frank Cilluffo takes part in an online forum on the topic of online extremism. Cilluffo writes, “We can’t kill and capture our way to victory. We have to attack their ideas. This is really about ideas. We’re dealing with a media campaign; a multimedia approach. It’s not so much about the websites, it’s about the chat rooms. Our emphasis must be on where we can engage others. It’s about people.

Senior Qaeda Theologian Urges His Followers To End Their Jihad
The New York Sun
December 20, 2007
"The director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, Frank Cilluffo, said, "Here you have someone with the stature and credibility, who more or less wrote the book on jihadism and is oft cited by other jihadists, making the case against it. This is someone with the heft on legal and religious grounds to make the counter argument that we can't."

A State Department Official Praises Saudi on Terror
The New York Sun
December 13, 2007
“The director of the Homeland Security Policy Initiative at George Washington University, Frank Cilluffo, however yesterday said he was keeping an open mind. ‘These kinds of programs could have great significance,’ he said. ‘But we need greater empirical data. We need to know greater transparency, we need to track it further for recidivism.’"

Taking a Cue From Britain: Fighting Terrorism With Engagement
Congressional Quarterly
September 10, 2007
“Frank J. Cilluffo, a former homeland security adviser in the Bush White House, says there has been a wrong-headed mindset within the administration, dating back to the post-Sept. 11 era, ‘that we can kill and capture our way to victory.’ And, he says emphatically, ‘That’s simply not the case.’”

Terror Goes Digital. With Canadian Help
Globe and Mail
August 18, 2007
“’If you look at the messaging and narrative, it's aimed at a Western audience,’ says Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, and a former special assistant on security to the president. ‘I look at al-Qaeda as a brand, and you have to look at what makes brands flourish – there has been a big improvement in use of symbols.’”

How to Look at Homegrown Terror
Time Magazine
August 16, 2007
Frank Cilluffo suggests NYPD’s “Radicalization in the West” report will create competitive pressure spurring the feds and other police departments to greater feats of transparency and nuance.

Al-Qaeda May Use Iraq Tactics in U.S., Report Says
Bloomberg
July 17, 2007
Frank Cilluffo, head of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, said the report shows ``unequivocally'' that more resources must be devoted to defeating al-Qaeda in this region.  Such a renewed push ``should be part of a broader effort to win hearts and minds, remove terrorist masterminds, and provide opportunities for those who may be seduced by the jihadi ideology,'' he said.

Terrorism's Hook Into Your Mailbox: U.K. Case Shows Link Between Online Fraud and Jihadist Networks
The Washington Post
July 5, 2007
"We need to better understand who the primary actors are on these sites and chat rooms, as well as the nexus between where these people are in the cyber and physical world," said Frank J. Cillufo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at The George Washington University. "Sure, people will say and do things in the cyber environment that they probably wouldn't do face-to-face, but the question is when does it morph from talk into action? We need to better understand the trigger points that move these participants from sympathizer to activist to indiscriminate violence."

Experts Advise on Combating Radicalization
Time Magazine
June 15, 2007
“We've been fighting the wrong battle," says Frank Cilluffo, a former White House Homeland Security official who is researching deradicalization at George Washington University. "The real center of gravity of the enemy is their narrative. It is ideologically bankrupt.”

Experts Advise on Combating Radicalization
New York Times
June 15, 2007
“We have to stop attacking only the structure and start attacking their strategy,” the director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, Frank J. Cilluffo, said. Terrorist organizations, for example, use the Web to glorify the people who carry out attacks as serving God. But, Mr. Cilluffo noted, there is no effort to use video from gruesome attacks like the slaughter of Russian schoolchildren or the bombing of a wedding at a Jordanian hotel to underscore that terrorists are cold-blooded murderers

Amendment Addresses Concerns of Homegrown Terrorism
Congressional Quarterly
June 14, 2007
The commission’s work should produce new instruments for combating homegrown terrorism, which can complement the asymmetric approach that focuses on “killing and capturing” terrorists, added Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. Cilluffo said one of the primary objectives the commission should focus on is a more solid understanding of Islam as well as the narrative that radical groups promote pitting Western societies against Muslims. Gaining these perspectives would allow the United States a better opportunity to publicly deconstruct the campaigns promoted by radical groups like al Qaeda. Furthermore, the United States should adopt policies that match the words they use to promote its counter-narrative.

Defense Against Extremist Use of the Internet
The Hill
June 5, 2007
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) comments on the testimony of Frank Cilluffo before the Homeland Security Committee regarding the use of the internet chat rooms as a recruiting and coordination tool by terrorists.

Experts Seek More Clues About Root Causes of ‘Homegrown’ Terrorist Movement
CQ
September 20, 2006
One way to prevent these ideologies from spreading is if more strong Muslim leaders take a role as Muslim service provides in prisons, where a great deal of radicalization is cultivated, says Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. It’s natural for inmates to seek religion for direction, he said. But Muslim leaders with radical beliefs are often able to influence the prison population because there are not enough qualified imans to work in prisons, Cilluffo said. Furthermore, U.S. officials need to have more interaction and communication with the Arab and Muslim communities across the world to cultivate mutual trust and understanding, Cilluffo said. Confining discussions with these groups to counterterrorism will create a defensive atmosphere, he said.

Plots traced to prison
Newsday
September 19, 2006
"Prisoner radicalization is a potentially significant threat to U.S. national security," said the head of the panel, Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Secu- rity Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "The U.S., with its large prison population, is at risk of facing the sort of homegrown terrorism currently plaguing other countries."

HSPI Experts

Frank J. Cilluffo, Director, Homeland Security Policy Institute:

Frank has served as Director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute since joining The George Washington University in April 2003. He also serves as the University’s Associate Vice President for Homeland Security, where he leads GW’s homeland security efforts on policy, research, education, and training. The Institute’s recent policy and research agenda has spanned terrorism and radicalization, disaster management and emergency preparedness, pandemic influenza planning and bio-defense, intelligence and information sharing, and a host of other national and homeland security matters. Prior to joining HSPI, Frank served as Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security at the White House. Shortly following the September 11, 2001 te