LAPD Deputy Chief and HSPI Staff Release Commentary on Prisoner Radicalization

Jan. 28, 2010 - PRLog -- Cons Gone Wild?

By Sharon L. Cardash, Frank J. Cilluffo, Michael P. Downing, and F. Jordan Evert

A Senate Foreign Relations Committee report released this month announced that up to three dozen Americans who converted to Islam in prison have traveled to Yemen, possibly to train with al-Qaida. Though blockbuster news, it was largely drowned out by other headlines, including the continuing fallout from the Christmas Day airliner attack.  Despite limited public appetite and attention span for more bad news, we ignore such developments at our peril.

Prisons have long served as incubators for radical ideas.  Hitler, Stalin, Sayyid Qutb, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi all nurtured their extremist ideas in jail; and in some instances recruited followers while in prison.  It is a stretch to think that al Qaeda would turn down the opportunity to expand its ranks when there is a captive audience that is, at once, difficult to monitor yet susceptible to radicalization and violence.  Indeed, al Qaeda has adopted a concerted strategy of targeting for recruitment individuals who hold U.S. passports and play against type. Continue reading at http://www.gwumc.edu/hspi/policy/Commentary09_PrisonRad.pdf

For more on HSPI's work on radicalization, visit http://www.gwumc.edu/hspi/policy/hotTopics_radicalization...

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About HSPI
Founded in 2003, The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) is a nonpartisan think and do tank whose mission is to build bridges between theory and practice to advance homeland security through an interdisciplinary approach. By convening domestic and international policymakers and practitioners at all levels of government, the private and non-profit sectors, and academia, HSPI creates innovative strategies and solutions to current and future threats to the nation.