Homeland Security is trying to root out domestic violent extremism in the U.S.

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Homeland Security is trying to root out domestic violent extremism in the U.S.

Transcript¹

The Biden administration's new Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships² aims to stop radicalization before it starts. But critics say it's a repackaging of failed strategies and inadequate³.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now let's pose a question that's closer to home. How effectively is the United States fighting domestic extremism? President Biden says it's a big priority. Part of his arsenal⁴ is the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, known as CP3. Some outside observers are asking if that center is keeping up with an evolving threat. NPR's Odette Yousef covers domestic extremism.

ODETTE YOUSEF, BYLINE⁵: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calls CP3 a response to the most pressing threat in the United States right now, domestic violent extremism. He says it's a sea change for his department, a new way to confront a threat that is constantly changing.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: We are deeply concerned about false narratives⁶, ideologies⁷ of hate that are fueled by conversations and messages on online platforms and other social media.

YOUSEF: Mayorkas says CP3 takes a new approach to preventing homegrown violent extremism, one that relies on behavioral indicators⁸ to spot when someone's on a path toward violence. And that leans on local communities to respond. Regional offices will coordinate⁹ with on-the-ground organizations to understand local dynamics¹⁰, strengthen community resources and formulate¹¹ interventions¹². Gone are the days of prevention efforts orchestrated from D.C. Mayorkas says the key here is that it's people helping¹³ people they know.

MAYORKAS: It is the family member, the friend, the school teacher, the neighbor, the clergy¹⁴ leader who can see someone descending¹⁵ into a realm of antisocial behavior and, hopefully, intervene to help.

FATEMA AHMAD: If you go to dhs.gov/cve, it just redirects you to the CP3 page.

YOUSEF: When Fatema Ahmad talks about CP3, she reverts¹⁶ to the acronym¹⁷ of an Obama-era program called CVE, for countering violent extremism. She says a lot of what she's hearing about CP3 sounds like echoes from the past.

AHMAD: Like, it's the exact same website and everything. They just keep changing the name.

YOUSEF: Ahmad leads the Muslim Justice League, a nonprofit in Boston, which was one of the cities where CVE was piloted several years ago. At the time, the focus was heavily on Muslims and concern over homegrown terrorists joining groups like ISIS. But even the Department of Homeland Security acknowledges the program had what it calls unintended consequences. Civil rights advocates said it resulted in religious profiling and unwarranted surveillance of Muslim communities. In fact, when he was on the campaign trail, Joe Biden promised to shut the program down. Ahmad says the administration is right to identify violent white supremacy¹⁸ and extremist militias¹⁹ as the greatest domestic security threat today. But she still thinks the approach is wrong.

AHMAD: It's promoting this idea that you can spot someone in your community who is supposedly, you know, going to become a, quote-unquote, "extremist." But what does that even mean, to be extreme, in this country, right? Like, it's not actually extreme to be racist²⁰ here, right? Like, that's pretty normal.

YOUSEF: DHS officials say they're not in the business of policing beliefs. Instead, they're working with community partners who can identify specific behavioral signs that someone may be on a path toward violence, and when they do, to direct them to resources that would, quote, "call them back in" - that is, get them help to address their grievances²¹, like mental health support, rather than put them in the hands of law enforcement. But there's disagreement over whether DHS is the right agency to do this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MANUEL BOJORQUEZ: The Department of Homeland Security is now investigating this incident where Border Patrol agents on horseback are seen intimidating²² Haitian migrants at the southern border.

YOUSEF: Ahmad says DHS has recently contributed to the hardening of American attitudes toward immigrants and people of color. Mary McCord of Georgetown University agrees that past DHS policies may complicate²³ its efforts. She says, in recent years, the department has been responsible for some of the most cruel and inhumane treatment of people in the United States.

MARY MCCORD: You know, caging of children and separating children from their parents at the southwest border, that was DHS. Well, that same agency is basically also responsible for saying, trust us to protect you in the homeland.

YOUSEF: McCord says some communities simply won't trust DHS when it says it wants to partner with them to address violent white extremism. Cynthia Miller-Idriss of American University says she's encouraged to see language like public health and whole of society in descriptions of how CP3 is thinking about violence prevention now. But, she says, a true approach along those lines would be much bigger and radically²⁴ different.

CYNTHIA MILLER-IDRISS: When other countries do this, they have nine, 12 or more agencies involved in setting up their national strategies to counter domestic violent extremism.

YOUSEF: Here, Miller-Idriss says, that would include the departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Labor²⁵. But instead, the United States still largely frames extremism as a national security challenge at DHS. And the stakes couldn't be any higher, she says. In the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol last year, it's clear that lies, misinformation and hate aren't just drivers of targeted violence or terrorist attacks. They're also contributing to the corrosion²⁶ of America's democracy itself. Idriss-Miller says throwing $20 million in grants to local partner organizations in certain selected communities, as CP3 did last year, isn't nearly enough to offset²⁷ that.

MILLER-IDRISS: Germany just made a $1 billion investment. And it's a country that's a quarter of our size. New Zealand is standing²⁸ up an entire new agency and a whole national center on prevention in the wake of Christchurch. I mean, they're doing massive investments. And we have done those levels of investments before when we face national security crises.

YOUSEF: Crises such as the terrorist attacks on 9/11, which prompted, about a year later, the creation of a whole new federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security.

Odette Yousef, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MALIKI'S "CONSORTIUM")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

3 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

4 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 narratives   

记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分

参考例句：

• Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning. 结婚一向是许多小说的终点，然而也是一个伟大的开始。
• This is one of the narratives that children are fond of. 这是孩子们喜欢的故事之一。

7 ideologies   

n.思想（体系）( ideology的名词复数 )；思想意识；意识形态；观念形态

参考例句：

• There is no fundamental diversity between the two ideologies. 这两种思想意识之间并没有根本的分歧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Radical ideologies require to contrast to their own goodness the wickedness of some other system. 凡是过激的意识形态，都需要有另外一个丑恶的制度作对比，才能衬托出自己的善良。 来自辞典例句

8 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

9 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

10 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

11 formulate   

v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述

参考例句：

• He took care to formulate his reply very clearly.他字斟句酌，清楚地做了回答。
• I was impressed by the way he could formulate his ideas.他陈述观点的方式让我印象深刻。

12 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

13 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

14 clergy   

n.[总称]牧师，神职人员

参考例句：

• I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example.我衷心希望，我国有更多的牧师效法这个榜样。
• All the local clergy attended the ceremony.当地所有的牧师出席了仪式。

15 descending   

n. 下行 adj. 下降的

参考例句：

• The results are expressed in descending numerical order . 结果按数字降序列出。
• The climbers stopped to orient themselves before descending the mountain. 登山者先停下来确定所在的位置，然后再下山。

16 reverts   

恢复( revert的第三人称单数 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还

参考例句：

• The mind reverts to the earliest days of colonial history. 我们回想到早期的殖民地历史。
• Macau reverts to Chinese sovereignty at midnight on December19. 澳门主权于十二月十九日零时回归中国。

17 acronym   

n.首字母简略词，简称

参考例句：

• That's a mouthful of an acronym for a very simple technology.对于一项非常简单的技术来说，这是一个很绕口的缩写词。
• TSDF is an acronym for Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities.TSDF是处理，储存和处置设施的一个缩写。

18 supremacy   

n.至上；至高权力

参考例句：

• No one could challenge her supremacy in gymnastics.她是最优秀的体操运动员，无人能胜过她。
• Theoretically,she holds supremacy as the head of the state.从理论上说，她作为国家的最高元首拥有至高无上的权力。

19 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

20 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

21 grievances   

n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚

参考例句：

• The trade union leader spoke about the grievances of the workers. 工会领袖述说工人们的苦情。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• He gave air to his grievances. 他申诉了他的冤情。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 intimidating   

vt.恐吓，威胁( intimidate的现在分词)

参考例句：

• They were accused of intimidating people into voting for them. 他们被控胁迫选民投他们的票。
• This kind of questioning can be very intimidating to children. 这种问话的方式可能让孩子们非常害怕。

23 complicate   

vt.使复杂化，使混乱，使难懂

参考例句：

• There is no need to complicate matters.没有必要使问题复杂化。
• These events will greatly complicate the situation.这些事件将使局势变得极其复杂。

24 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

25 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

26 corrosion   

n.腐蚀，侵蚀；渐渐毁坏，渐衰

参考例句：

• Corrosion is not covered by the warranty.腐蚀不在保修范围之内。
• Zinc is used to protect other metals from corrosion.锌被用来保护其他金属不受腐蚀。

27 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

28 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。