September 19, 2006

Islamic Terrorists Being Recruited in U.S. Prisons- and Other Things Harvey Kushner Warned of in ‘05

In March and April of last year, I blogged an appearance by counter-terrorism expert Harvey Kushner. I noted that, per Kushner, "Muslim chaplains in our prisons are actively recruiting felons to radical Islam."

Today a study is being published that provides documentation on the radicalization of U.S. prisoners by Islamic terrorists:

Study: Islamic Terror Cells Recruit Extremists in U.S. Prisons

WASHINGTON - Jailed Islamic extremists are taking advantage of few available Muslim chaplains and scarce religious monitoring programs in U.S. prisons to breed terrorists with violent interpretations of the Koran, a study released Tuesday shows.

State and local prison officials struggle to track radicalized behavior by inmates or religious counselors, the joint study by George Washington University and the University of Virginia found. And many prisons cannot afford preventive programs, including in California, where officials reported "that every investigation into radical groups in their prisons uncovers new leads, but they simply do not have enough investigators to follow every case of radicalization."

"Radicalized prisoners are a potential pool of recruits by terrorist groups," concluded the study, released at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on homegrown terrorists. "The U.S., with its large prison population, is at risk of facing the sort of homegrown terrorism currently plaguing other countries."

In this light, it is useful to revisit the other things that Kushner warned about. Here's the entire post from April, 2005:

Previously I'd noticed that no terrorist incidents were taking place in the U.S., and I hoped that there wasn't much activity on the part of terror cells here. My eyes were opened by Harvey Kushner's new book, Holy War on the Home Front: The Secret Terror Network in the United States:

• Muslim chaplains in our army must be approved by supporters of terrorism. That sounds preposterous; but there are only three groups approved by the Pentagon to endorse Muslim military chaplains, and they all have ties to terrorism. "Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl said on October 14, 2003, 'It is remarkable that people who have known connections to terrorism are the only people to approve these chaplains.'" (p 31). That may help explain the actions of Hasan Akbar, the Army sergeant who was convicted this week of murdering his fellow officers.

• Muslim chaplains in our prisons are actively recruiting felons to radical Islam. Kushner quotes from a Justice Department report (p45): the BOP [Bureau of Prisons] typically does not examine the doctrinal beliefs of applicants for religious service positions to determine whether those beliefs are inconsistent with BOP secuurity policies; ... BOP inmates often lead Islamic religious services, subject only to intermitten supervision.." Kushner quotes Chuck Colson (p 38): "Al Qaeda training manuals specifically identify America's prisoners as candidates for conversion because they may be 'disenchanted with their country's policies.' As U.S. citizens, they will combine a desire for 'payback' with an ability to blend easily into American culture." Governor Pataki of New York banned Warith-Deen Umar from entering any of the state's prisons, for praising the 9-11 hijackers. Umar was formerly the head Muslim chaplain of New York State prisons.

• Saudi-funded grade schools teach Wahhabi doctrine to children, including such statements as "Christians and Jews are infidels" and "There can be no peace between Muslims and non-Muslims." (p 58). The New York Daily News "found that fifth and sixth graders at one school were being taught that 'the Jews killed their own prophets and disobeyed Allah,'" and that the Islamic Foundation of North America has sold 40,000 copies of a grade-school textbook that says that many Jews and Christians lead "decadent and immoral lives." (p 59).

• Cash flow from illegal drug trading funds terrorism. (I posted about Kushner's briefing on this here. )

• Profits from counterfeiting items like cigarettes and clothes are substantial and are funding terrorism.

• Islamic organizations use trumped-up charges of racism to frighten mainstream media and keep them from reporting.

• "Liberals who attack the Patriot Act couldn't do a better job of aiding and abetting the enemy if they tried." (p 134).

• "The ACLU and other liberals are busy defending the rights of [illegal immigrants], oblivious of their crimes or their victims. America should require a commitment to the Constitution and the secular nature of our country, as well as an understanding of its cultural expectations. Our system of preference for immigrants should welcome those who accept our definition of good citizenship and reject those with records of criminal activity, anti-Americanism, or any link to terrorism."

There's much, much more. It appears to me that until a person is familiar with the matters Kushner describes, he or she has no idea what's really going on in this country on the part of Islamofascists who are working to harm us.