Another
Terrorist Sues the Bureau of Prisons
by Patrick Dunleavy
IPT News
June 6, 2018
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 Add convicted
terrorist Rafiq Sabir to the growing list of incarcerated radical Islamic
terrorists who are suing the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau
of Prisons (BOP) for allegedly violating their rights. Sabir is serving a 25 year sentence after a 2007 conviction for conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida.
Sabir's attorneys argued "that he was a gullible man" and only
pretended to pledge bayat to al-Qaida to impress someone. U.S.
District Judge Loretta A. Preska saw it differently. She felt that Sabir
lacked remorse and imposed the stricter sentence to deter others who would
seek to join a terrorist organization.
The case is an example of how terrorists, once captured and
incarcerated, learn how to manipulate the system, by using the courts to
claim "rights" from a government they were all too eager to
overthrow. The more time terrorists spend in prison, the more likely they
are to become "jailwise," that is, knowing how to exploit the
system for all they can get. They learn how to using the legal system to
advance their cause. They also find a sympathetic ear and support from
groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Muslim Advocates, the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) or the Human Rights Commission.
Sabir and fellow inmate James Conyers, a career violent offender, claim
that, by blocking them from participating in congregational prayer five
times a day, prison officials are infringing on their rights to practice
their religion as they see fit under both the U.S. Constitution and the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). BOP policy allows pairs of
inmates to pray in areas throughout the facility but restricts prayer
involving three or more inmates to the prison chapel when the schedule
permits.
The policy is considered necessary to protect prison staffers' security.
Correctional officials agree that giving unlimited groups of inmates the
right to gather whenever or wherever they please would undermine a prison's
orderly operation. Experience shows that giving an incarcerated terrorist
the freedom to meet unrestricted with other inmates greatly increases the
possibility of radicalizing other inmates and could lead to deadly consequences.
This is what happened with El Sayyid Nosair after his conviction for
killing Rabbi Meir Kahane. He served as the prison chaplain's clerk in
Attica state prison when, he convinced other Muslim inmates to help him
circumvent security rules regarding telephone access. Nosair used
the phone to conspire with Blind Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and
other radical Islamic terrorists in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and
in plots to attack other New York landmarks.
Then there is Ahmad Khan Rahimi, better known as the Chelsea Bomber.
He was allowed to meet unmonitored with other Muslim inmates in New York's
Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) prison mosque. While there, he gave other inmates plans for making an improvised explosive
device (IED), and sermons by al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Anwar
al-Awlaki.
Simply put, convicted terrorists must not be allowed to comingle with
other inmates anytime they choose, no matter what their religious beliefs.
Their ability to radicalize other inmates to their twisted belief system is
a clear and present danger to the security of the prison and to the
country.
Recently "Underwear Bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab filed a similar lawsuit. Not only are his religious
rights being violated, the suit claims, but the conditions of his confinement "prohibit him from
having any communication whatsoever with more than 7.5 billion people, the
vast majority of people on the planet."
Talk about the theater of the absurd!
Other terrorists who have filed lawsuits against the DOJ and the BOP
include Ramzi Yousef, convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center attack, and
Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, convicted in the attack on the United States
Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
When he filed his lawsuit, Mohamed told the court that he was
rehabilitated. His prison disciplinary record says otherwise. He brutally assaulted a corrections officer, Louis Pepe,
by stabbing him in the eye with a jailhouse shank, then pouring a
searing-hot liquid into the wound. Pepe was permanently disabled.
Despite this attack, a federal judge in 2014 ruled in Mohamed's favor, saying restrictions on his
outside communications were arbitrary.
Sabir and Conyers also have a shot at winning, given other litigation.
John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban, serving 20 years for taking up
arms against United States coalition forces in Afghanistan, won a lawsuit in 2012 claiming that his religious
rights were violated in custody. The judge found that Lindh's "scant,
nonviolent disciplinary history had merited him a classification of
low security." Lindh is scheduled to be released from custody in less
than a year.
Inmates, especially incarcerated terrorists, know that if they can feign
rehabilitation they are more likely to be released.
The recent release of domestic terrorist Herman Bell, responsible for
the murders of three law enforcement officers, and the anticipated release
of terrorist Judith Clarke provide examples. Bell was touted for all the
good he did in prison, earning two college degrees. In Clarke's case, not
only was her prison record extolled, but the judge felt that it was wrong to look at the severity of
the crime when considering parole. He felt she merited a new release
hearing. Merited? What of the innocent lives taken by the terrorists, did
they not merit value and deserve justice?
When terrorists tout their "rights," they make a mockery of
justice and insult the memories of the fallen.
It is utter foolishness to extend rights to terrorists who can pose
safety risks to others around them.
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.
Related Topics: Civil
suits, Homegrown
Terror | Patrick
Dunleavy, prison
radicalization, Rafiq
Sabir, Bureau
of Prisons, Muslim
Advocates, CAIR,
ACLU,
Religious
Freedom Restoration Act, El
Sayyid Nosair, Ahmad
Khan Rahimi, Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab, Khalfan
Khamis Mohamed, John
Walker Lindh, Herman
Bell
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