Ideas worth spreading

Conversations with a terrorist

Clint Watts • TED Salon: Doha Debates

In 2013, blogger and counterterrorism expert Clint Watts used Twitter to interact with someone who would otherwise be difficult to talk to -- Omar Hammami, a member of the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. Drawing on his military training, Watts persuaded Hammami to share stories, jokes and details about his ideology. In the end, Watts concludes "that often, there's very little that separates the terrorists and the counter terrorists that hunt them."

In 2013, blogger and counterterrorism expert Clint Watts used Twitter to interact with someone who would otherwise be difficult to talk to -- Omar Hammami, a member of the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. Drawing on his military training, Watts persuaded Hammami to share stories, jokes and details about his ideology. In the end, Watts concludes "that often, there's very little that separates the terrorists and the counter terrorists that hunt them."

This talk was presented at a TED Salon event given in partnership with Doha Debates.

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About the speaker

Clint Watts

Counterterrorism expert

Clint Watts is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a non-resident Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. As the author of “Messing With The Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians and Fake News,” he focuses on terrorism, counterterrorism, social media and disinformation. Previously, Watts was a US Army infantry officer, Executive Officer of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, consultant to the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division and National Security Branch and US Intelligence Community and US Special Operations Command analyst.

About TED Salon

TED Salons welcome an intimate audience for an afternoon or evening of highly-curated TED Talks revolving around a globally relevant theme. A condensed version of a TED flagship conference, they are distinct in their brevity, opportunities for conversation, and heightened interaction between the speaker and audience.

Read more about TED Salons

This talk was presented at a TED Salon event given in partnership with Doha Debates.

Read more about TED Salons.