No matter, those poor little jihadis deserve much better treatment and the jihadi snakes...I mean the Jihadi lawyers...are working on it.
Deep inside city jails, top cops keep a watchful eye out for terror
BY ROBERT F. MOORE
New York Daily News
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU
Sunday, August 13th, 2006
An elite group of correction officers, cops and federal agents is closely monitoring suspected radicals at city jails to prevent them from recruiting angry and isolated prisoners into their fold.
Authorities believe the jails, along with prisons across the nation, could become fertile recruiting grounds for homegrown jihadists who follow the teachings of Osama Bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists.
Aware of the great risk, city correction bosses created the specialized intelligence unit on Rikers Island to stop fanatics before they can indoctrinate others.
"We aggressively monitor all security risk groups," Martin Horn, who runs the city's Department of Correction, told the Daily News. "We have our own intelligence unit and we're always looking at inmate alliances."
Last week's arrest of dozens of accused Islamic terrorists - most of them Britons who allegedly plotted to blow up airliners bound for New York and other U.S. cities - underscores the growing threat of homegrown extremists.
Even before the terrorist ring was exposed, FBI Director Robert Mueller warned that radical Islamists had been spreading their depraved philosophy behind bars in the U.S.
"Inmates may be drawn to an extreme form of Islam because it may help justify their violent tendencies," Mueller said this summer. "These persons represent a heightened threat because of their criminal histories, their propensity for violence and their contacts with criminals."
Mueller said there are more than 5,000 extremist Web sites that prisoners, in varying degrees, can gain access to. That exposure, along with active recruitment, has helped change the face of terror.
Evidence that prisons are helping spread the murderous ideology of terrorists has been mounting for years.
In 2002, Brooklyn-born terror suspect Jose Padilla was arrested after stepping off a flight from Pakistan in Chicago's O'Hare Airport for allegedly plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb."
Padilla - whose Al Qaeda handlers included 9/11 plotter Khalid Shaikh Mohammed - turned away from his Catholic upbringing and converted to Islam while in a Florida jail in the early 1990s, authorities said.
Just last year, four suspected terrorists were arrested in California for allegedly plotting to attack military recruiting centers and Jewish synagogues.
Two of the accused jihadists met while incarcerated in Folsom State Prison and were part of a radical group, Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheed or JIS, which was founded in the California prison in 1997, the feds said.
The plot included a string of armed robberies committed to raise money for the terrorist group, while its leader, Kevin James, was still incarcerated.
James, a U.S. citizen, called on his followers to attack the "infidels" and supporters of Israel, authorities said.
"The indictment of these suspects shows the importance of law enforcement agencies working together. The prison system is a big part of that," said Elaine Jennings, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections.
Prison officials in many states have been monitoring Muslim inmates since the 9/11 attacks. But the Rikers Island intelligence unit is among the most sophisticated.
Since being created two years ago, the unit's investigators have not detected a significant threat, but authorities and experts say the surveillance is a vital part of the city's defense against terrorism.
"Prisons are incubators for extremist ideology," said Steven Emerson, a counterterrorism expert based in Washington. "There's no recognition of the problem in federal prisons. And there's no national oversight of the state prison system."
Those who disagree with Emerson include noted Imam Johari Addul-Malik, who counsels inmates in Washington.
"I don't think the radicalization of Islam is happening in prison in any systematic way," Addul-Malik said.
Abdul-Malik noted that Islam has a long history in America of playing a positive role in reforming criminals, including Malcolm X. But he acknowledged "there are some who misuse Islam as a cover to influence people to commit crimes of all types."
Several elected officials, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), have long called for the hiring of more Arabic speakers to help collect intelligence on federal inmates.
The Justice Department also has chided the federal Bureau of Prisons for failing to conduct background checks on imams who counsel prisoners.
City correction officials conduct background checks on clerics of all faiths. But a New York State prison source told The News that correction officers remain concerned about the influence of imams, especially those who work in prisons upstate.
The source said jailers are often unable to monitor the imams or even the discussions of some prisoners because of language barriers and concerns over charges of discrimination.
With James Gordon Meek
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/443116p-373179c.html
The upcoming "Snakes on a Plane" movie had nothing on these highly toxic human beings who call themselves jihadis and who are every bit as lethal as the most poisonous serpent on the planet.