National Post (National Edition)
THE GROWING RADICAL DILEMMA
HOW DO COUNTRIES RE-INTEGRATE EXTREMISTS AFTER THEY’RE FREED?
John Walker Lindh, the Californian who took up arms for the Taliban and was captured by invading U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2001, got out of prison Thursday after more than 17 years, released under tight restrictions that reflected government fears he still harbours radical views.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo decried his early release as “unexplainable and unconscionable” and called for a review of prison system policies.
Lindh’s release was also opposed by the family of CIA officer Mike Spann, who was killed during an uprising of Taliban prisoners shortly after interrogating Lindh in Afghanistan.
Lindh and other incarcerated American supporters of Islamic extremists present a quandary with growing urgency: Is the United States prepared to try to rehabilitate extremists and foreign fighters, and welcome them back into society?
“There is very close to nothing in terms of de-radicalizing programs at the federal level,” said Bennett Clifford, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.
“The current model is hoping long prison sentences for material support of terrorism will be a deterrent.”
About 500 U.S. federal prisoners have been sentenced for terrorism-related crimes and about a fifth will be released within five years, 62 of them U.S. citizens, researcher Kevin Lowry wrote in the Journal for Deradicalization in 2018.
Countries around the world are also grappling with the problem of how to deal with radicalized extremists returning home after fighting for terrorists abroad.
Lindh, 38, dubbed the “American Taliban,” left a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., after getting time off for good behaviour from the 20-year sentence he received upon pleading guilty to providing support to the Taliban.
Under restrictions imposed by a federal judge in Alexandria, Va., Lindh’s internet devices must have monitoring software; his online communications must be conducted in English; he must undergo mental-health counselling; he is forbidden to possess or view extremist material; and he cannot hold a passport or leave the U.S.
FBI counterterrorism officials work with federal prison authorities to determine what risk a soon-to-be-released inmate might pose.
Probation officers never explained why they sought the restrictions against Lindh. But in 2017, Foreign Policy magazine cited a National Counterterrorism Center report that said Lindh “continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts.”
On Wednesday, NBC reported Lindh, in a letter to a producer from Los Angeles-based affiliate KNBC, wrote in 2015 the Islamic State group was “doing a spectacular job.”
Lindh converted to Islam as a teenager after seeing the movie Malcolm X and eventually made his way to Pakistan and Afghanistan and joined the Taliban. He met Osama bin Laden and was with the Taliban on Sept. 11, 2001, when al-qaida terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Lindh was captured in a battle with U.s.-allied Northern Alliance fighters in late 2001. He was present when a group of Taliban prisoners launched the attack that killed Spann.
Spann’s daughter Alison, now a journalist in Mississippi, posted a letter on Twitter that she said she had sent to President Donald Trump. In it, she called Lindh’s early release a “slap in the face” to everyone killed on 9/11 and in the war on terror since then, along with “the millions of Muslims worldwide who don’t support radical extremists.”
Lindh was initially charged with conspiring to kill Spann. He denied any role in the CIA man’s death, but admitted carrying an assault rifle and two grenades.
At his trial, Lindh said, “I did not go to fight against America and I never did. I have never supported terrorism in any form and I never will. ... I made a mistake by joining the Taliban. Had I realized then what I know now, I would never have joined them.”
With Lindh’s release and with inmates who have Islamic State ties nearing the end of their sentences, there may be a new focus on culling extremist beliefs before prisoners head back into civil society. But time is nearly up for many. “The offenders about to be released would receive resources at the end of their sentence,” Clifford said.
Federal officials have signalled interest in expanding recidivism-prevention and reintegration efforts, although it amounted to one paragraph in the White House’s 2018 counterterrorism strategy and focused on radicalization in prison.
There are some breakthroughs. The U.S. District Court for Minnesota, which has had an influx of Islamist terrorism suspects, has pioneered efforts to focus on deradicalization from extremist beliefs, efforts that include civic education, family involvement and mental-health counselling for inmates, Lowry wrote.
Those models were adapted from European programs and include efforts to combat white-supremacist beliefs. But there is no similar national program within federal prisons, Lowry noted.