Hello trusty readers,
Congratulations on making it to post #2! I want to preface my posts from here on out by saying that I am restricted to a certain degree in what I can and cannot say for the purposes of confidentiality. So if I am vague at times, I promise it’s not because my middle school teachers didn’t properly educate me on descriptive language. Now, onto the real stuff. The first two weeks at my internship have been a whirlwind. Before I even started my first day, my boss Daveed had already sent me my first assignment: a background check for a client. As much as I would like to think that I was an FBI agent combing through top secret data, it was just a social media background check. Which is not to say that it wasn’t still tedious work. I had to carefully examine the application of the woman under review and search for any inconsistencies or red flags in her online pages. It was the perfect starting assignment because what female millennial has not mastered the art of online stalking? You may be wondering how background checks fit into Valens’ work. And even if you’re not wondering that at all, I’m going to tell you anyway. As I’ve said, Valens is frequently responsible for analyzing the threat posed by violent non-state actors (VNSAs) but also other closely associated challenges such as insider threats, international and corporate espionage, etc. Ultimately, all of these threats-- which are often intertwined-- can deeply impact Valens’ clients and Valens must safeguard their interests by competently assessing them. Therefore, background checks are crucial in the detection of such potential threats. For the next few days, I embarked on the beginnings of a larger project: Daveed’s forthcoming book. He has to submit a book proposal to a publishing company so I worked on that after many hours of research on the available book material so far. His book is about the evolution of jihadist external operations from the perspective of organizational learning processes. From Bin Laden’s pivot toward destroying the ‘far enemy’ in the West to ISIS’s string of brutal attacks around the globe, the book demonstrates how these groups adapted and modified their external operations over time. And, more importantly, how the underlying networks behind these operations have been frequently underestimated by counterterrorism authorities. For example, when authorities labeled a succession of attackers in Europe before the November 2015 Paris attacks as “lone wolves,” they failed to see the broader network to which these individuals belonged. In doing so, they missed their chance to potentially foil the Paris operation which killed 130 people. For the beginning of my second week, Valens sent me out to D.C. for a few days in order to complete intern onboarding. I got to see the Valens office and become acquainted with the rest of the team, including the other interns. We were briefed deeply on the mission of Valens, its work standards, and the firm’s ongoing projects. I absolutely loved everyone (with the exception of the UNC graduate)! It was a short but undeniably sweet trip. After that I got started on my last project for the week which was a research package. The research package was on terrorist virtual planners because Daveed was giving expert testimony on the subject. As operatives that digitally guide terror attacks from overseas, virtual planners are taking long-distance relationships to the next level. A boom in messaging applications with end-to-end encryption (#thanksSnowden) has allowed terrorists to message recruits in different regional destinations about recommended plots-- offering instructions, advice and even encouragement up until the minute that action is taken. Yes, you know what that means. External operations no longer require a territorial base for coordination; someone can rock the world with nothing more than a cellphone. As the virtual planners love to say…. TTYL, Becca
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