RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Fertile Soil of Jihad: Terrorism’s Prison Connection by Patrick T. Dunleavy (Sep 2011)

What happens when a terrorist goes to prison? What type of special security risk do they pose for authorities. In the case of Abu Hamza al-Masri, indicted for conspiring in a 1998 kidnapping of American and other tourists in Yemen and in trying to help set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon, prison officials went after his arms, literally.

Masri lost both of his appendages from the forearm down as the result of an explosion when he was fighting in Afghanistan. He was later equipped with metal hooks as prosthetic devices to assist him. Correctional personnel felt that that type of prosthesis posed a security risk to personnel in the

Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City and confiscated them. They said he will be fitted with more benign, non metallic hands to be paid for by the government. If that were the only threat posed by incarcerated terrorists there would be no need for concern. Once jailed are they actually rendered harmless?

Prior cases tell us this is not the case.

El Sayyid Nosair arrested in 1990 for shooting Rabbi Meir Khane had been in prison for over two years when he was charged with participating in the conspiracy to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993. He was able to use the privileges accorded him in jail, phone, visits, program assignment, to carry out the terrorist act. Rendered useless, I think not.

And what of Masri and his prior sphere of influence. Many forget that one of the reasons travelers have to remove their footwear before boarding a plane was in part due to Masri’s influence. In 1996 Abu Hamza al Masri became the Imam of North London Central Mosque in Finsbury Park, London. One of his disciples was a recently released inmate who had converted to Islam in prison. That individual was Richard Reid, the now infamous “shoe bomber”, who attempted to detonate an explosive device hidden in his sneaker while on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001.

In other cases the acts and influences of jailed terrorists can be seen. Talib Jan was a member of the Taliban placed in the Pul-e-Charkhi prison, the National Detention Center in Kabul, Afghanistan after being captured by coalition forces. From there Jan was able to continue to direct terrorist operations. His involvement included the selection of both personnel and targets for attacks. In addition, according to authorities he had the ability to communicate specific instructions to the would-be suicide bombers from his prison cell. In one attack he directed the “shaheed” to a Finest Supermarket in the Wazir Akbar Khan section of the city, killing fourteen people in 2011.

Mohammed Merah, the son of Algerian immigrants living in France, went on a rampage killing seven people in March 2012. Three of the victims were French military personnel, one was a Rabbi, and three were children from a Jewish School. An investigation into the terrorist act by L’Inspection générale de la police nationale (IGPN) found that Merah was exposed to radicalization while incarcerated. Prior to his time in prison he was described simply as a petty criminal of not significance. Something or someone inside helped to influence his metamorphism into a violent jihadist.

A TERRORIST IS NOT RENDERED HARMLESS WHILE IN PRISON, IF HE CAN, HE WILL ACT, IF HE CAN’T HE WILL INFLUENCE….THE JAILED TERRORIST OFTEN PROVIDES A SEGUE FOR OTHERS TO BE RADICALIZED.

The problem is global and ongoing in places like North Africa, Southeast Asia, India, and Russia. It is not confined to one ideology, or religious dogma. Non-Islamic terrorists in prison, members of domestic terrorists organizations with ties to leftist, communist organizations or race supremacy groups are always looking for ways to increase membership or their sphere of influence while incarcerated. Prison can produce strange bedfellows. When you take terrorists whether they are Anarchists, Islamists, Maoists, or Naxals, and put them in prison with alienated, disenfranchised common criminals with a propensity for violence, radicalization will occur and as a result what comes out of prison may be much worse then what went in.

A recruiter will seek out the most vulnerable in the prison population, those alienated individuals who were seeking acceptance and looking for meaning in their life. He will often manipulated their feelings of animosity toward authority and steered them to hate the enemy, be it the infidels, the non-Islamists, or members of a specific race or ethnicity. Often what unites a violent extremist organization is not only a common goal, but a common enemy. The problem of prison radicalization will continue to perplex Counter Terrorism and Correctional experts until a consensus is built as to how best to address it. Whether this is achieved by de-radicalization programs, counter radicalization programs, or rehabilitation programs is open for debate. Disagreement is not to be feared. Inaction or complacency in this arena may be our greatest threat. Simply removing a prosthetic device will not remove the threat.

Author Bio

In the world of counter terrorism, Patrick T. Dunleavy has long been noted as one of the leading experts. Throughout his career as the Deputy Inspector General of New York, Patrick has the advantage of prison radicalzation knowledge that comes from firsthand experience.
In 1988 he was assigned to the Office of the Inspector General. During his career with the Office of the Inspector General, he has worked undercover infiltrating criminal enterprises and contract murder conspiracies. He has been a hostage negotiator, and also a key figure in the design and implementation of a data system used to gather intelligence on criminal activity ranging from drug trafficking and money laundering to fugitive apprehension and terrorism.
Following September 11, 2001, Patrick Dunleavy was appointed the Deputy Inspector General of the Criminal Intelligence Unit. At the request of various agencies, Mr. Dunleavy has been a speaker on the topic of terrorist recruitment to organizations such as the FBI, CIA, Scotland Yard and Canadian Intelligence Services. During the last four years of his career, Mr. Dunleavy was assigned to the Regional Intelligence Center in New York City, a multi-agency consortium engaged in counter terrorism and intelligence gathering.
He is the author of the book “The Fertile Soil of Jihad” He has also written on the subject of radicalization for the Washington Times and the New York Post.
In 2011 Mr. Dunleavy was called to testify before the House Committee for Homeland Security as an expert witness on the subject of prison radicalization. He is currently working as a consultant for the IACP and the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services.