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Lawmakers ask State to refocus anti-terror efforts on Iran, Pakistan
Lawmakers of both parties on Thursday questioned a State Department anti-terrorism agency's focus on al Qaeda and demanded that it also focus its efforts on threats coming out of Iran and Pakistan.
Alberto Fernandez, the coordinator of the interagency Center of Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, testified before the House Foreign Affairs panel on terrorism about his center's mission to push back against Islamist messaging. He said the center focuses on five main groups:
• Somalia's al Shabab, which is affiliated with al Qaeda;
• al Qaida senior leadership and its allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan;
• al Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliates in North and West Africa;
• al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen and the Arabic peninsula; and
• al Qaeda in Iraq.
That limited list did not sit well with some lawmakers.
“You need to start focusing on Iran,” said Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.). “Just a word of caution.”
“My hope is that you're reaching out to the Pakistani people not just in Urdu, which is the politically correct language that the government ... in Pakistan would have you use, but also in the other languages, particularly Sindhi,” he told Fernandez. “The U.S. must reach out to Sindh, where, of course, the Sindhi language is spoken by more people than Urdu, even though I know you have native Urdu speakers."
“You might have to do it all,” added Sherman, who vowed to fight for the increased funding that would be needed.
The center was established by the Obama administration in 2010. It made news earlier this year when it was involved in spoof ads on websites in Yemen that replaced jihadist ads with pictures of coffins draped with Yemeni instead of American flags, to show most victims of terrorism are local people.
The United States isn't the only country involved in such efforts. Britain's MI6 service recently replaced an online Jihadi recipe for pipe bombs with a link to how to make American cupcakes, panel Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) wrote on his blog.
Correction: This post was corrected to attribute a quote to Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) rather than Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.)
