U.S. DOJ announces program to deter joining terror groups in cities

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced a program involving local officials and community leaders to deter extremists such as the Islamic State.

The initiative, announced in a video posted on the Department of Justice website and featuring Holder, is in preparation for a White House summit in October to address violent extremism recruitment in the United States.

"Few threats are more urgent than the threat posed by violent extremism. And with the emergence of groups like ISIL (another term for IS), and the knowledge that some Americans are attempting to travel to countries like Syria and Iraq to take part in ongoing conflicts, the Justice Department is responding appropriately," Holder says in the video.

"The White House, the Department of Homeland Security and the national Counterterrorism Center will partner with local religious leaders, community organizers and U.S. attorneys to improve local engagement ... counter violent extremism ... and ultimately to build a broad network of community partnerships to keep our nation safe," he added.

The effort is an expanded version of the FBI's 2009 approach in Minneapolis, where a small group of Somali-Americans resided before traveling to Somalia to join the militant group al-Shabaab. Although the group did not return to the United States to plot terrorist attacks, as the FBI feared, the Somali example has become a template for the FBI's approach to potential IS recruits.