Are
Prisons Conveyor Belts to Jihad?
by Patrick Dunleavy
IPT News
August 3, 2018
|
|
|
|
Share:  
|
  Be the
first of your friends to like this.
 As the United States
and its coalition partners continue to squeeze ISIS out of its remaining
territory in Iraq and Syria, more and more foreign fighters are returning
to their home countries. This migration from the battlefield to the
hometown is causing great concern among Western counterterrorism
authorities. The question on everyone's mind is how long before the
returning jihadists unleash an attack on their own countries.
Not very long, according to a new study on terrorism and political violence. Within
one year, the study found, and in some cases as little as months, returning
fighters attempted a terrorist attack in their home countries.
The term researchers used to describe that period was, "Lags in Attack
Times of Extremist Returnees (LATER)."
The most effective way to mitigate the threat, authors David Malet and
Rachel Hayes say, is to take immediate corrective action when a jihadist
returns home. Increased security and a vibrant de-radicalization program
can help the returnees peacefully reintegrate to Western society.
This advice is just as important for American prison officials to heed.
Malet, an American University assistant professor in criminology, and
Hayes, a Treasury Department employee, examined the cases of 230 Western returning
"jihadi foreign fighters between 1980 and 2016."
While some counterterrorism experts believe incarcerating the returning
terrorists would deter future action, the study found the opposite is true:
"Prison appears to play no role in lag times." While an
incarcerated returnee may not be able to physically conduct an attack, he
can recruit others and has the ability to plot or coordinate an attack from his prison cell.
So what does happen when terrorists are placed in prison? They try to
attract other inmates to their cause. "Every time we put them with the
rest of the detainees, they engage in recruitment activities," said Belgian criminologist Valerie LeBrun.
This should come as no surprise as we have outlined in the past and a
2004 report by the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed, "inmates incarcerated
for crimes connected to terrorism or inmates who have received overseas
religious instruction may possess extra credibility with other inmates,
enough to gain a religious following within the prison."
Belgian criminal Benjamin Herman provides a recent example. Jailed for
robbery and drugs, he entered prison as a common criminal who claimed to be
Catholic, fell under the influence of radical Islamic inmates, and
converted to Islam. Before his release in May, authorities were warned about his radicalization, but were unable to stop him. He killed two Liege police officers and a school
custodian, while shouting "Allahu Akbar" as he was brought down
by a hail of police bullets.
In light of this, it would seem that the simplest solution to preventing
prison recruitment would be to isolate the incarcerated terrorists from
other inmates.
But the sheer number of inmates jailed for terrorism related crimes
makes that difficult. "Never have so many people been arrested on
charges related to terrorism, and never have we seen so many of these guys
in prison together," said
Thomas Renard, counter terrorism expert and senior
fellow for Belgium's Egmont Royal Institute for International
Relationships.
Great Britain and France have created new prison units for terrorists,
but have found that these special arrangements do not eradicate the threat.
"Every radical Islamist convict will be released from the correctional
facilities some day," Eva Kühne-Hörmann, Germany's Hessian state
minister of justice, told the Washington Post.
French authorities acknowledge that "hundreds of inmates, radicalized
during the war in Syria and the rise of Islamic State ... will be released
from French prisons before the end of next year." The United States is
facing a similar situation with the anticipated release in the next two years of as many as
100 inmates convicted of terror related crimes. Among them is John Walker Lindh, captured in 2001 in Afghanistan,
fighting against United States coalition forces.
Given these facts, it is disturbing to find that authorities here and in
the EU have failed to develop and mandate some sort of
de-radicalization program while terrorists are still in prison.
While many of the prison programs help inmates deal with alternatives to
violence, none address the radical Islamic ideology which is seen as the
cause for much of the terror attacks here and in the European Union.
"Nonviolence, not deradicalization, remains the primary goal,"
Lebrun said.
But some in the Muslim community disagree with that approach. "The
prisons are trying to quarantine the virus, but they don't really address
the problem, "We need experts in ideology," Brussels imam Ilyas
Zarhoni told the Post.
In Great Britain, inmates convicted of terror related crimes have simply
refused to attend any de-radicalization program.
Some attorneys in the United States strongly oppose any de-radicalization program that they
feel violates the offender's constitutional right to religious freedom. But
they ignore the fact that terrorists in prison frequently use that very
right to sue prison officials for privileges and easier jail
time. Convicted 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui wants a wall clock and a digital watch while he serves
out six life sentences with the Bureau of Prisons. There isn't a clock in
the world big enough for that amount of time.
To better address the problem, we might increase the number of probation
officers assigned to monitor released inmates, with specialized training
for those responsible for supervising paroled terrorists. Another strategy
would be to create a national registry for convicted terrorists
similar to what is used for convicted sex offenders.
It we do not address this problem quickly, prisons may easily become
conveyor belts for would be jihadists.
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: Patrick
Dunleavy, prison
radicalization, foreign
fighters, returning
jihadists, David
Malet, Rachel
Hayes, Valerie
LeBrun, Benjamin
Herman, Liege
attack, Thomas
Renard, Belgium,
Eva
Kühne-Hörmann, Ilyas
Zarhoni, released
terrorists
|
Print
Send
RSS
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment