U.S.
Ill Prepared for Convicted Jihadis Ending Their Prison Sentences
by Patrick Dunleavy
IPT News
February 8, 2017
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"O Allah, Free the Muslim Prisoners."
Inspire Magazine 2010
The old adage, "Out of sight, out of mind" does not apply to
dealing effectively with the threat of Islamism especially in the case of
terrorists who have been captured or incarcerated.
Radical Islamic organizations such as al-Qaida and ISIS never forget
their members. To them, going to prison is part of the pathway to paradise.
Both groups' leaders, Ayman al-Zawahri and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, spent
considerable periods of time locked up. It did nothing to diminish their
zeal, but rather, fueled their fervor. Often, as in their cases, what comes
out of prison is worse than what went in.
This is further illustrated by the increased number of terrorists
released from Guantanamo who rejoin the fight against U.S. military personnel.
Almost one in three released prisoners return to the jihadists' fold. This recidivism can be
attributed in part to the admonitions terrorists receive to assist those
who are captured or imprisoned. That support may include financial help for
their families and for legal fees.
These instructions were found in a training manual discovered in 2000 by law enforcement
officers in Manchester, England.
"I take this opportunity to address our prisoners. We have not
forgotten you," al-Zawahiri said in an interview with Al Shabab
commemorating the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. "We are
still committed to the debt of your salvation . . . until we shatter your
shackles."
AQAP's Inspire magazine went so far as to list the names of
incarcerated members for all to remember.
They do this because jihadis firmly believe that sooner or later they'll
be reunited with those members.
If that isn't ominous enough, consider the fact that as many as 100
people convicted of terror-related offenses in U.S. prisons will be set free in less than four years.
And yet, while Islamic terrorist organizations have rapidly changed in
their recruitment and tactical methodologies overall, the U.S. has not
adapted to countering the evolving threat.
In the United States, the number of terror-related incidents increased
exponentially since 9-11. As they did, authorities adapted new ways to
investigate. State of the art technologies help collect and analyze data.
Fusion centers were created to get the information into the hands of
investigators in real time. Counter terrorism, intelligence, and law
enforcement agencies joined together to share.
Legislation has changed how the judicial system prosecutes terrorists.
"Our criminal law was unprepared for international terrorism. We
simply did not have statutes and penalties that fit what terrorists
do," said former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, who led
the prosecution against the first World Trade Center bombers and blind
sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.
A vigorous debate continues whether to treat terrorists as criminals or
as enemy combatants. A reasonable consensus among the military and the
judicial branches is building for the use of both designations.
Two significant changes, in policy and practice, toward radical Islamic
terrorists remain to be addressed.
Terrorists go into prison much the same way as the burglar, the drug
dealer, or the pedophile. They are housed and fed in existing correctional
facilities with common criminals. No mandatory rehabilitation or
de-radicalization programs exist for convicted Islamic terrorists. And when
they are released, there is no specialized supervisory program applied to
monitor their employment or whereabouts.
This situation has to change if we are to deal effectively with
terrorism. We should establish a registration list for convicted
terrorists. This would provide local authorities with the identity of those
recently released to their communities. It has been successfully used with
sex offenders. It can work if properly applied.
With as many as 500 terrorists now in custody and more to come, the custodial system
must also evolve in how it handles jihadists. Security classification must
not be downgraded simply because the terrorist has become "jail wise" (exhibited good behavior) like
"American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, who will be released from prison in
two years.
Special administrative measures – conditions of confinement –
which restrict visits, correspondence and other prison privileges assigned
to terrorists must continue.
Uniform security standards for imprisoned terrorists should be
established in the federal, state, and local correctional facilities. Jose
Padilla, the alleged "dirty bomber" who first learned of a radical form of Islam while in a
Florida county jail and was originally sentenced to life in prison, is
scheduled to be released in eight years. Who will be the parole officers
assigned to supervise him and will those officers be afforded any
specialized training before that happens?
In some cases, specialized facilities like Guantanamo are necessary in
dealing with enemy combatants and other committed jihadists. They are
effective. No anecdotal evidence has been presented showing them to be a
recruitment tool for ISIS or al Qaida. That is like saying that Alcatraz
was responsible for the increase in violent crime.
The number of people arrested in the U.S. for terrorism-related crimes nearly tripled in 2015. That year, FBI Director James
Comey testified that more than 200 people traveled overseas
from the United States in an attempt to fight alongside ISIS or al-Qaida
related groups in the Middle East and North Africa.
In 2016, Comey said his agents still had 1,000 open cases related to
ISIS. Within the next few years, he said, there may be a "terrorist diaspora" of
ISIS fighters leaving the battlefield of Syria and returning to their home
countries, committed to carrying out more terrorist attacks.
We can only hope that the vast majority will be apprehended before they
can carry out attacks here in the United States. And when they are, we had
better be prepared to effectively deal with them throughout their entire
time in the system. Anything less is unacceptable to the citizens of this
great country.
IPT Senior Fellow Patrick Dunleavy is the former Deputy Inspector
General for New York State Department of Corrections and author of The Fertile Soil of Jihad. He currently
teaches a class on terrorism for the United States Military Special
Operations School.
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