Hamas 'friend' Erdogan and Obama 'admin' to Create Fund to Stem Islamic Extremism.

Hamas 'friend' Erdogan and Obama 'admin' to Create Fund to Stem Islamic Extremism.(NYT).

The United States and Turkey on Friday will announce the creation of a $200 million fund to combat violent extremism by undercutting the ideological and recruiting appeal of jihadists in places like Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan, State Department officials said Thursday.

The new fund, formally called the Global Fund for Community Engagement and Resilience, will for the first time combine financing from both government and nongovernment entities to identify credible local organizations; develop, monitor and evaluate programs; and channel funds to local projects that target groups and individuals vulnerable to appeals from terrorist groups.

It is expected to be operational by mid-2014, officials said.

The initiative, based on other global funds to combat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, is to be announced by Secretary of State John Kerry and Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Global Counterterrorism Forum in New York. 

The United States and Turkey are leaders of the group, an organization of 29 countries and the European Union created two years ago with the State Department’s support to act as a clearinghouse of ideas and actions for civilian counterterrorism specialists.(Israel excluded from the group)

“Countries that have a radicalization problem previously had to rely on ad hoc support from wealthier donor nations, many of which are not bureaucratically capable of sponsoring the small intervention programs necessary to disrupt the radicalization process,” said William McCants, a former State Department counterterrorism official who is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Now countries can turn to the global fund to sponsor programs that will pull young men and women back from the edge of terrorist violence.”

The United States is initially expected to contribute $2 million to $3 million to the fund, which will be administered in Geneva. Other likely donors besides Turkey include the European Union, Canada, Qatar, Denmark and Britain as well as private sources. American officials said they expect the fund to raise more than $200 million over a 10-year period.

Grants from the fund would provide vocational training to youths at risk of being recruited by terrorist organizations; new school curriculums that teach tolerance and problem solving; and Web sites and social networks to educate youth about the dangers of violent extremist ideologies.Hmmmm.....Is it me or is this Obama 'admin' becoming one giant 'stand up comedy show'? Read the full story here.