White House planning February summit on radicalization

The efforts took on new importance “in light of recent, tragic attacks in Ottawa, Sydney, and Paris,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement Sunday morning.
Earnest said efforts rely heavily on “well-informed and resilient local communities.”

He pointed to Boston, Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St. Paul, which “have taken the lead in building pilot frameworks integrating a range of social service providers, including education administrators, mental health professionals, and religious leaders, with law enforcement agencies to address violent extremism as part of the broader mandate of community safety and crime prevention.”

Earnest also said the summit will include representatives from partner nations who are “actively implementing programs to prevent violent extremism and foreign terrorist fighter recruitment.”