A rash of knife attacks by recently released terrorists has put Britain on edge and serves as a reminder that the United States needs to do more itself to prepare for the imminent release from prison of convicted terrorists. In order to avoid the current problems of the British government, which is rushing to pass emergency legislation, American lawmakers should take advantage of our federalist system to bring state and local resources to play in tracking released terrorists.
The British government is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/02/streatham-attacker-was-released-terror-offender-sudesh-amman">struggling to address</a> the threat from dozens of convicted jihadi terrorists who are due to be released within months. Britain has seen several high-profile attacks from freed terrorists who received early release before serving even half their sentences.
Earlier this month, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/03/wave-jihadi-terrorists-due-freed-early-release-within-months/">20-year old Sudesh Amman</a> strapped on a fake explosive vest before launching a knife attack on Streatham High Road in London. Despite being under direct police surveillance during the attack, the jihadist critically wounded one person. Amman had previously been sentenced to three years and four months in prison for multiple terrorism offenses in November 2018 <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-46592539">related to distributing Islamic State propaganda</a>.
The attack methodology of a fake suicide bomb vest and knives directly mirrored that of Usman Khan, another convicted terrorist, who in November 2019 <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50653191">killed two people</a> on London Bridge. Prior to the attack, authorities had considered Khan <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50653191">a model</a> rehabilitated prisoner. Khan was attending a deradicalization conference minutes before he launched his attack.
Official data show that the British government has reconvicted <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/12/six-terrorists-freed-from-jail-committed-further-terror-act-figures-reveal">an additional six British jihadi terrorists</a> released from prison between 2013 and 2019.
This newest wave of attacks is a reminder that the U.S. also faces a risk from previously convicted terrorists who are released; various “rehabilitation” schemes are highly suspect.
Aimen Dean, a former al-Qaeda member who later spied for Britain’s MI6, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/al-qaeda-spied-mi6-know-deradicalisation-doesnt-work/">told The Telegraph</a>, “there is no such thing as a rehabilitated jihadist.” Morton Storm, a Danish former al-Qaeda member who later helped to betray terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki to the CIA, agrees. Rehabilitation efforts, he says, ignore that jihadis are not confused or mentally ill, <a href="https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/joseph-perticone/denmark-aims-rehabilitate-not-punish-returning-jihadists">but are adherents of an ideology</a> to which they are committed. “[D]eradicalizing the jihadists doesn’t work, because they’re religiously motivated,” Storm told the Associated Press in 2017, in response to a Danish rehabilitation program.
Nearly two decades after 9/11, even high-level terrorist leaders facing long sentences are becoming eligible for parole and may even complete their full sentences. While there is very little information available on recidivism rates among convicted terrorists, the recidivism rate of jihadist fighters released from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility was nearly 17% in 2018, with another 13% also suspected of returning to active terrorism.
In 2017, a National Counterterrorism Center <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/the-troubling-us-post-prison-experiment-to-rehabilitate-an-isis-supporter">report noted,</a> “more than 90 homegrown violent extremists incarcerated in the U.S. who are due to be released in the next five years will probably re-engage in terrorist activity.”
In order to address this challenge, U.S. federal, state, and local law enforcement need tools in order to prepare for released terrorists. One such tool would be a terrorism registry, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/america-needs-a-national-terrorist-registry-to-keep-us-safe">which would provide law enforcement</a> the ability to track the location of former terrorists in the same way police and the public can keep tabs on sex offenders — with legal sanction for failure to register. Louisiana successfully passed the first terrorism offender registry law in 2019, and several states have expressed interest in following suit.
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/america-needs-a-national-terrorist-registry-to-keep-us-safe">A nation-wide network</a> has also been proposed by Patrick Dunleavy, a specialist on terrorist activity in the prison system. Realistically, such a proposal requires both federal assistance with information-sharing, as well as state laws to establish the registries and allow state authorities to enforce them.
A nationwide system of state terrorism registries would also take advantage of American federalism, utilizing state and local law enforcement to help prevent federal counterterrorism agents from being overwhelmed with keeping tabs on prior offenders.
Public registries protect and empower the individual citizen without need for government controls. The Department of Justice maintains a <a href="https://www.nsopw.gov/">public sex offender registry</a>, which private companies often use as a database for <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fsp.android.h&amp;hl=en">websites and apps that alert citizens</a> about rapists, stalkers, and molesters living in their neighborhoods.
Pseudoscience models of rehabilitation treat convicted terrorists as emotionally stunted unfortunates rather than committed ideologues willing to use violence for a political purpose. This has proven to be a disaster. Instead, the U.S. should implement a registry system for terrorists, bringing state and local law enforcement resources, as well as private enterprise, to bear and improving communication and cooperation for law enforcement in order to ensure that terrorist re-offenders do not slip through the net.
&nbsp;
Kyle Shideler is the Director and Senior Analyst for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy.

London

SHIDELER: Stop Releasing Jihadists From Prison

Al Qaeda

Great Britain

Islamic State (ISIS)

Jail

Prison

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

United Kingdom

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington last week was contentious, as a heated debate raged over whether President Donald Trump should meet with the Islamist dictator. Critics questioned the timing of the White House meeting, coming as the Turkish military prosecutes attacks against Syrian Kurdish forces, and remains notorious as the world’s largest jailer of professional journalists.
But one element which was largely ignored in the discussion — and yet might impact Trump’s view of his Turkish counterpart the most — is the outsized role played by Erdogan’s government in meddling in U.S. domestic relations, particularly in his backing of American Muslim groups.
These organizations are among those most vociferously opposed to the president and nearly all his policies — from immigration and border security to moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. These groups also routinely slander the president as a white supremacist.
Working jointly under the banner of the U.S. Council of Muslims Organizations (USCMO), American Muslims groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim American Society (MAS), and other domestic Muslim groups “collaborate and coordinate” with the Turkish government, according to researcher Ahmet S. Yahyla in a special report for The Investigative Journal. What is most notable about these organizations is a shared heritage in the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamist movement which Erdogan publicly supports.
In the last several years, the link between Turkey’s government and U.S. Brotherhood-linked groups has grown deeper. Both CAIR and MAS have increasingly featured Turkish leaders and topics at their conferences and events. A November 2nd CAIR-Los Angeles event in Anaheim sponsored by Turkish Airlines faced dozens of Kurdish-American protestors angry over the group’s continued support for Turkish persecution of Kurdish minorities. Researchers have pointed out anti-Armenian propaganda being distributed by Turkish-sponsored booths at MAS events.
This collaboration between Turkey and American Muslim Brotherhood was most public in the December 2017 protest against the president’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The USCMO joined the Turkish American National Steering Committee (TASC) — led by Erdogan’s cousin, Halil Mutlu — in denouncing the decision outside the White House.
During the rally, Mutlu declared that Erdogan was, “my president, your president, president of the ummah (the worldwide community of Muslim believers),” as the crowd applauded. According to hacked emails published by Wikileaks and noted in Yahyla’s report, in 2016 TASC was part of a network of Turkish organizations facing investigation by the FBI over questions of foreign influence.
Mutlu came under media scrutiny in October after the Daily Caller publicized that he had made a $1500 donation to the campaign war-chest of Rep. Ihlan Omar (D-MN). Omar, a leading member of the “Squad” of freshman Democrats with whom President Trump has repeatedly tangled on a wide variety of political issues, is a frequent keynote speaker for CAIR and MAS events.
In 2019, Omar, together with fellow “Squad” member Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN), attended a CAIR-organized event at the Turkish government-affiliated Diyanet Center of America, a massive mosque complex located in Maryland.
Omar has been repeatedly criticized for casting votes favorable to the Turkish government, including as one of only 11 votes against a House resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, and in vocally opposing sanctions on the Turkish military over allegations of war crimes against the Kurds in Northern Syria.
Omar has also been noted for her frequent denunciations of Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood’s shared enemies, most notably in her vocal stance against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates&#8217; joint campaign in Yemen against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.  The Intercept recently reported on a meeting held in Turkey between Iranian al-Quds force officers and high-level Muslim Brotherhood leaders wherein the two groups discussed cooperation in Yemen.
Omar’s ties to Erdogan predate her time in Congress. That includes a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-ilhan-omar-met-2017-infamous-islamist-josh-hammer">2017 meeting</a> with the Turkish president in New York during a U.N. conference, while Omar was still a Minnesota assemblywoman.
There is much about Turkey’s recent behavior with which foreign policy, national security, and human rights experts might take umbrage. But these complaints have fallen upon deaf ears, thanks in part to the American public’s fatigue with the Middle East more generally.
But Turkey’s efforts to bankroll American Islamist efforts, including seeking political influence and meddling in the larger domestic agenda of the president, could help spur a broader American rejection of Turkish bad behavior.
&nbsp;
Kyle Shideler is the Director of the Counter-Islamist Grid (CIG), and writes at CounterIslamist.org

Erdogan

SHIDELER: Authoritarian Turkey Utilizes American Islamist Groups For Domestic Political Meddling

CAIR

Ilhan Omar

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkey

Menu

SHIDELER: Stop Releasing Jihadists From Prison

SHIDELER: Authoritarian Turkey Utilizes American Islamist Groups For Domestic Political Meddling