This Mason alumnus lost a friend due to ISIS. Here’s how he’s fighting back.

Mariam Aburdeineh — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 00:05:00 +0000

This Mason alumnus lost a friend due to ISIS. Here’s how he’s fighting back. Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 04/28/2020 - 20:05

When Haider Semaisim works on the federally mandated database of global incidents of terrorism with ��AV’s Schar School of Policy and Government, he does so with pride. It is not only an educational and professional endeavor, he said. “It’s personal.”

“Iraq is one of the countries that suffered a lot from terrorism,” said Semaisim, an Iraqi-American. “[My friend, Zaid] was killed in 2011 by ISIS.”

Haider Semaisim is part of a Mason team analyzing terrorist incidents around the world for the U.S. State Department. Photo provided.

Zaid, who Semaisim said was working as a first lieutenant for the Iraqi Army, responded to an order to liberate hostages in a home. Tragically, the house was booby-trapped and exploded, he said.

“It was very devastating,” said Semaisim, who earned his master of laws from Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School in 2017. “This project is giving me retribution in a way, that I am fighting terrorism through the keyboard.”

As Semaisim analyzes terrorist incidents for the database from open-source media, he helps trace terrorist trends and strategies.

“When we look at a terrorist organization holistically over one or two years, we notice something that a real-time follower would not notice,” Semaisim said.

That’s one reason the database provides critical insight for policy makers, he said.

Semaisim said he primarily analyzes incidents from Iraq, and his fluency in Arabic and understanding of Iraqi culture and politics allow him to bring a unique expertise to the project.

He describes the project as “the good fight,” but he is also passionate about making a difference in other areas.

Before coming to the United States in 2014, Semaisim said he was a lawyer in Iraq doing criminal and divorce law.

Semaisim became a U.S. citizen in 2018. Photo provided.

“I was not very optimistic about the future of Iraq, and the United States is a beacon of freedom,” said Semaisim, who became a U.S. citizen in 2018.

Some of Semaisim’s friends were not as fortunate, he said. Learning about their challenges in gaining legal status inspired him to switch his interests to immigration law.

“There’s a lot of people who deserve to be here, who would contribute a lot, who seek to have a better life to care for their children and want to be here,” Semaisim said. “With just the right type of help, they can live their lives normally.”

Thanks to his Mason education, Semaisim believes he will be on his way to helping after he passes the bar exam.

“George Mason is an amazing university,” Semaisim said, adding that the law school professors, such as his favorite, Michael Davis, are respected lawyers who not only teach from textbooks, but from real-life experience.

Even when Semaisim would disagree with peers or professors, he said his Mason education instilled in him “respect of the argument and how to accept differences.”

“Haider is a hard worker, eager to learn, willing to give back, and fully appreciative of the education he received,” Davis said. “There are some students I think will do well in the future, and then there are those students like Haider, who I am sure they will do well. He was an asset to our law school and a model for other LLM students.”

Schar School of Policy and Government Terrorism Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC)

Antonin Scalia Law School

Scalia Law School

Schar School of Policy and Government

Law and Policy Research

National Policy Issues

International Policy Issues

Students

What does it take to understand global terrorism? This Mason team is finding out.

Mariam Aburdeineh — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 00:05:00 +0000

What does it take to understand global terrorism? This Mason team is finding out. Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 04/28/2020 - 20:05

More than a dozen students, alumni and faculty at ��AV are working on a digital terrorism database that will help policy makers and researchers understand and defend against terrorism.
Front row (left to right): Becca Cooper, Alexis Polo, Caitlin Ford, Amanda Darby, Chukwuma Onyia.
Back row (left to right): Ernest Ogbozor, Mathieu Bere, Isaac Williams, Russ Travers (guest speaker during his tenure as Acting Director of The National Counterterrorism Center), Manuela Chyang, Vincent Nicosia, Haider Semaisim. Photo by Buzz McClain.

To defend against terrorism, you have to understand it. Thanks to more than a dozen students, alumni and faculty at ��AV working on a digital terrorism database, everyone from policy makers to researchers around the world will be a step closer to that goal.

“There are many other databases focusing on [terrorism], but very few have the international reach that we do, most of them are regional or country-specific,” said Vincent Nicosia, a 2019 alumnus of the Schar School of Policy and Government who is working on the database at the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC).

Since the early 1990s, the U.S. Congress has mandated that the State Department produce a report on global terrorism. Part of that includes keeping a database of every terrorist incident around the world, said TraCCC Deputy Director Judith Deane.

Development Services Group Inc. (DSG), partnering with Mason, was awarded the five-year contract from the State Department in August 2018 to work on the reports. Mason hires and trains the multilingual data analysts who interpret, categorize and enter the information, while DSG produces a statistical annex based on the data, Deane said.

“We’re really thrilled to get this,” Deane said. “It’s an educational opportunity for Mason students, and it’s a real opportunity for students to contribute something in the world.”

As the database is congressionally mandated, it informs foreign policy decisions, said Mason professor Mahmut Cengiz, senior data analyst on the project.

Mason’s team complements DSG’s automated open-source information gathering, by analyzing the incidents to ensure the data is as accurate as possible. It’s an innovative approach, Deane said, and unlike most other data collection efforts, the Mason team collects up to 52 attributes for each incident, including facts on the perpetrators, targets, victims and weapons.

Team members have cultural and historic understandings of the countries they work on, and all have studied terrorism or counterterrorism. Front row (left to right): Manuela Chyang, Ernest Ogbozor. Back row (left to right): Matheiu Bere, Isaac Williams, Chukwuma Onyia. Photo by Buzz McClain.

Many students have cultural and historic understandings of the countries they work on, as they’ve lived in the regions and can speak the languages, Cengiz said. All have studied terrorism or counterterrorism.

The diversified staff and their expertise help ensure the database is not overly U.S.-centric in its interpretations, which had been a critique of the database before it was in Mason’s hands, Deane said. There are also members, such as 2017 Antonin Scalia Law School alumnus Haider Semaism, who have been personally affected by terrorism.

The database also looks at trends over time. For some students, the findings have been surprising.

“There’s a lot of different security issues that I wasn’t aware of before,” Nicosia said. “There are hotspots in areas like Chile and the Philippines; most people in the United States would probably imagine terrorism is a Middle Eastern phenomenon, but it’s truly a global issue.”

Being near the hub of U.S. government and policy also allows students to learn from experts who have visited as guest speakers. This semester the team heard from leaders, including former military advisor to the president of Bangladesh General Munir Munirizzaman Ret, former deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center Russell Travers and former acting and deputy director of the CIA Michael Morell, who is also a Schar School Fellow.

“These are some of the same people who are going to be looking at the data when it’s published,” said Caitlin Ford, who earned her bachelor’s in December and returned to Mason for her master’s in public policy. “It’s helpful to get multiple points of view so that we can be as objective and well-rounded as possible.”

“For education and professional growth, this is the place to be right now,” said Vladimir Semizhonov, an international security graduate student originally from Kazakhstan. “It has to do with phenomenon that stands very tall in the political and global agenda, and is not a purely academic exercise.”

In addition to learning more about counterterrorism, their efforts have global value.

“It makes me even more proud to be an American knowing that we are helping combat [terrorism] and that possibly one day we don’t have to have a database for this,” Ford said.