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| Terror Networks |
| U.S. Fears Al-Qaida Recruiting Prisoners |
| 2002-11-25 |
| Over the past year, officials have suspected that al-Qaida and other extremists have been reaching out to U.S. prisoners through reading material and personal contacts to try to form a base from which to gather information, funding and recruits. Though al-Qaida's efforts seem only loosely organized, one former top FBI official said prisoners are one of the three groups that most trouble the bureau as it monitors terrorists' efforts to recruit followers and inflame anti-American fervor. The two other groups are those who have trained at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and those who have joined radical mosques here and abroad. Prisons are "a captive audience of people already willing to use violence," the official said. "It's fertile ground." Willing to use violence is a pre-requisite for Islamists. There is no evidence that al-Qaida has yet succeeded in recruiting many prisoners in the United States or overseas. But authorities point to the case of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who is accused of plotting to set off a radioactive "dirty" bomb in the United States. Padilla had converted to Islam while in a Florida jail. In addition, Richard C. Reid, who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a jetliner with a bomb in his shoe, converted to an extreme form of Islam while in prison in London. Pair of Rhodes scholars, those two. Mahdi Bray, who runs the National Islamic Prison Foundation, a Washington-based outreach group, said the foundation receives thousands of books and pamphlets from Arabic nations to distribute to prisoners. Each year, it sends more than 20,000 Qurans and other books to those incarcerated. But, he says, the group has also received extremist literature, sometimes from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, filled with anti-American vitriol. "When we looked at some of them, we said, 'Hell no,' " Bray said. "I just won't distribute those." Extremist literature from Pakistan and Saudi? I'm shocked! |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 At least there's a chance for the US to recruit double agents to infiltrate Al Qaeda, just go to our own prisons... |
| Posted by: Tresho 2002-11-25 23:59:48 |