COLUMNS

Prison: A Training Ground for Terrorists

Jun 5, 2018 | 07:00 GMT

This photograph shows prisoners in a cell.

Many inmates, including jihadists, emerge from prison far more dangerous than when they entered.

(LightField Studios/Shutterstock)

Highlights

  • Hundreds of convicted jihadists are scheduled to be released from prison in the next few years, and their numbers will be bolstered by those prisoners who have embraced extremism while behind bars.
  • Prisons can serve as universities of crime for grassroots jihadists who lack terrorist tradecraft, and career criminals who convert will already possess skills useful in attacks.
  • The released extremists will add to the caseload for overburdened government forces working to counter the jihadist threat.

When Benjamin Herman, a 36-year-old Belgian, walked out of prison in Liege with a two-day pass on May 28, he was a man on a mission. That evening he killed a drug dealer he had met behind bars by beating him with a hammer. The next morning he attacked two policewomen from behind and repeatedly slashed them with a box cutter while screaming "Allahu akbar!" He took a service pistol from one of them and shot them both dead. He continued down the street and killed a man in a parked car before taking a woman hostage in a school. She was a Muslim and appealed to him to not hurt the children. His murderous mission, and life, ended soon after as he attempted to flee from the school. He exchanged gunfire with police, wounding four officers, and was shot dead. Herman's deadly rampage is a reminder of the threat...

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