Did President Obama’s Violent Extremism Conference Fail?

by Jerry Gordon (March 2015)

Prelude to a Conference

A three-day Conference “Countering Violent Extremism” was held from February 17 to 19, 2015 sponsored by the Administration with venues at both the White House and State Department. The genesis for the Conference was a White House Report issued December 1, 2011, Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism  in the United States. That report was developed in the wake of the May 2, 2011 assassination by the US Navy Seal Team Six of Al Qaeda mastermind, Osama Bin Laden. The Administration’s contention was that “core Al Qaeda” had been decimated and was “on the run.” That became a 2012 Presidential re-election campaign theme. The theme of the Conference came from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advisory panel reports on homegrown violent extremism. It identified possible forms of domestic “violent extremism” including right wing extremists, KKK, Aryan nation members and even returning veterans.  more>>>