It is an open “secret” that U.S. prisons are rife with Muslim converts, as well as those who are born into the jihadi cult. Let’s call it what it is and stop dancing around the danger. That (lying) ship has sailed.

Specifically, there exists reams of evidence revealing how prisoners become converts, and despite testimony from those in the know it is verboten to admit said truth. The fact of the matter is: according to “a former New York prisons official who testified Wednesday, radical Muslims have made “sustained efforts” to indoctrinate inmates in America, at the second hearing on Islamic radicalization held by Rep. Peter King. 

The first round of King’s hearings on domestic threats in March drew passionate protests, and the hearing Wednesday on radicalization in US prisons drew similar objections. Rep. Bennie Thompson (P-MS), the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said at the opening of the hearing that the threat of terrorism from U.S. converts in prison is “small.” Small, oh really now? How many dead Americans qualifies as a negligible amount? 

NOT only that, but adding to the nation’s detriment, first hand evidence is ignored like the plague and its poisonous effects are bearing fruit – for the jihadists! Take a toxic whiff – Since 9/11, the general focus on prison radicalism in the media and in government has been on the process of certifying imams and literature available to inmates. Fully understanding the impact of this phenomenon, however, requires a historical look back at Islam in prison. The seeds of jihad were planted in the prison soil by men like Warith Deen Umar long before we were attacked in 2001.

Having spent 26 years working in New York ‘s Department of Correctional Services, I have witnessed this process of radicalization first-hand. Sometimes it was monitored; sometimes a recruitment cell was infiltrated. As the Deputy Inspector General of the Criminal Intelligence Unit, I was a part of a special investigation called Operation Hades that probed the radical Islamic recruitment movement from both inside and outside prison walls. It was a startling revelation to me, working undercover, to see how the process works.

Being no stranger to Islamic jihad and their infiltration/penetration, there is little which can shock herein on this highly deadly subject matter. However, making others aware of its scope is a daunting challenge and task.

In fact, several years prior to this blog’s inception in June 2012, the following expose’ was written in 2005: The Opening of Jihad On U.S. Soil. It was not for nothing that its contents drew much ire from several “mainstream” media pundits, and their missives poured in fast and furious. So much so, quite a few took the time to rant and rave, as if anything which was written amounted to heresy. 

As a matter of record, right before its publication, advice was given (from several concerned quarters) to “scrap” it, but not because its contents weren’t factual, but because it would ruffle too many feathers. In any case, this writer’s response effectively was: thanks for the heads up, but mind your own damn business. Basically, who died and anointed anyone king over what’s considered too hot to pen? Good luck with that tactic.

OCTOBER 2013

“Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Army of God,” by Matthew Levitt. Photo: Screenshot.U.S. law enforcers have noted an increase of tattoos on prison inmates, particularly in the Southwest, with script written in Farsi and with graphics depicting Hezbollah imagery, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a newly published book, “Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Army of God,” by terrorism expert Matthew Levitt.The WSJ said Hezbollah’s “operatives and sleeper cells are certainly in America. ‘Law enforcement officials across the Southwest,’ Mr. Levitt writes, ‘are reporting a rise in imprisoned gang members with Farsi tattoos,’ including some with Hezbollah imagery. Another official he quotes puts it this way: ‘You could almost pick your city and you would probably have a [Hezbollah] presence.’”While Hezbollah has yet to mount an attack on U.S. soil, the group’s chief patron, Iran,  is not reluctant to do so, the WSJ said. “In 2011, Tehran tried to hire a drug trafficker in Mexico to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in a Washington, D.C., restaurant (the would-be assassin turned out to be a federal agent). And Iranian diplomat Mohsen Rabbani, who masterminded Hezbollah’s attacks in Argentina in the 1990s, assisted a (foiled) plot to bomb JFK Airport in New York City in 2007. Whether Hezbollah would strike the American homeland is an open question. But as Matthew Levitt’s well-researched book makes clear, it isn’t an outlandish one.”Levitt is a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and is a former FBI counter-terrorism analyst.

• In Venezuela we have been denouncing the presence of hezbollah for years. The plot to bomb JFK airport in 2007 was hatched partly in Venezuela and the direct flights between Caracas and Tehran, sometimes with stop overs in Damascus, served as vehicles for hezbollah easy entry in Latin America. For years the Venezuelan head of issuing local documents , first as chief officer of the identification department and then as interior minister, was Tarek Al Aissami a known operative of the Baath party. Surely some came to the US with Venezuelan papers and once here they find solace viewing some Washington NGO’s defend the venezuelan regime. Yes, danger is here and one day will show its face in its usual gruesome way. Hezbollah has also from its venezuelan base have been involved in drug traffic, just ask the DEA.

Until the 9/11 2001 terror attacks , no terrorist organization had killed more Americans than Hezbollah, the WSJ writes. “Today it remains an efficient global terror operation, having executed bombings on four continents, built a presence on six and even branched out to drug trafficking.”

There is always a price to be paid for silence, but remaining mute, instead of shouting from the rooftops, in some acute circumstances, can extract an unbearable price. Still, some remain mum to the burgeoning threat from Hezbollah (and Islamic jihad in general) due to Islamist-leaning sympathies, while others are just plain cowards. Spineless. Whatever the case, rest assured, Americans will pay a price which will leave few unscathed, even those who feign otherwise. Deaf, dumb and blind is hardly a strategy.

A catastrophe waiting to happen!