Are ‘American Taliban,’ others recidivism risks?
Question hangs over Lindh’s early prison release
John Walker Lindh’s eyes, dark and wild, were ubiquitous across magazine covers and cable news channels, alongside militants in Afghanistan, after he was captured in November 2001. He was a longhaired guerrilla with a California address — a traitor to some, a misguided kid sucked into Islamic jihad to others.
Dubbed the “American Taliban,” Lindh was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to supporting militants who harbored al-Qaida as it planned the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But in a surprise move to some, Lindh will be released from federal prison on Thursday, three years early, federal officials said.
Lindh and other incarcerated American supporters of Islamic militants 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 deradicalizing 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.”
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is stymied by budget constraints, a sprawling corrections bureaucracy and a top-down approach that focuses on traditional rehabilitation, such as turning away prisoners from gang activity or drugs, Clifford told The Washington Post.
About 500 federal prisoners have been sentenced f or t errorism- related crimes, and about a fifth will be released within five years, 62 of them U.S. citizens, researcher Kevin D. Lowry wrote in the Journal for Deradicalization in 2018.
With Lindh’s release, and with inmates who have ties to the Islamic State group 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 signaled 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 de-radicalization from extremist beliefs, efforts that include civic education, family involvement and mental health counseling 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.
Lindh will be monitored for three years by federal probation officials, the Bureau of Prisons said.
His early release is opposed by Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., who wrote a letter Friday to the Federal Bureau of Prisons requesting details about agency efforts to prevent recidivism by militants released from its facilities.
“We must consider the security and safety implications for our citizens and communities who will receive individuals like John Walker Lindh, who continue to openly call for extremist violence,” the letter reads.
Bill Cummings, an attorney for Lindh, did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawmakers asked for information about other convicted “terrorist offenders” who may be released from federal prison in coming years, and they inquired about the steps that prisons take to determine whether someone is an “ongoing public threat.”
The Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that it “participates in national and international efforts to identify new programs and approaches tailored to reduce the risk terrorist offenders pose inside and outside of prisons.”
Lindh, who was raised in California and Maryland, converted to Islam, met Osama bin Laden and joined the Taliban in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11 attacks, although his attorneys maintained that the attacks soured his outlook.
Lindh remains in custody at the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Institution in Indiana.