National Inmate Search

He's back! Rep. Peter King announces a second Muslim Radicalization hearing

Congressman King argues that the hearing is necessary due to a reported increase in cases in which inmates have been radicalized at the hands of jailed terrorists and extremist imam chaplains.

Last week Rep. King released a statement describing the second hearing’s agenda saying, "We will focus on a number of the serious cases in which radicalized current and former inmates have planned and launched attacks or attempted to join overseas Islamic terrorist organizations."

The panel will hear testimony from both U.S. and international experts on the issue and from those intimately involved in recent prison radicalization cases.

A 2009 report found that in the United States, roughly 240,000 inmates have converted to the faith since the 9/11 attacks.

The complexities of Islam in prison came to the fore in the United States through the disruption of an alleged terrorist plot in Los Angeles in 2005. 

On July 5, 2005, Levar Haley Washington and Gregory Vernon Patterson were arrested in Torrance, California as suspects in a string of gas station robberies.  A standard follow-up investigation included a search of Washington's apartment turned up jihadist material, including a target list. Both suspects are U.S. nationals and converts to Islam. 

The two were part of Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (JIS), Arabic for Assembly of Authentic Islam, a radical prison organization. The leader of JIS, Kevin James was an inmate serving time for robbery convictions at a prison near Sacramento,California. James recruited fellow prisoners to join and preached the duty of members to target enemies of Islam, or "infidels," including the U.S. government and Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel. In addition, James allegedly sought to establish groups, or cells, of members outside prison to carry out violent attacks.

James met Washington in prison in 2004 and introduced him to JIS and its beliefs.  Prior to Washington's release that same year, James provided him with "Blueprint 2005," a document urging prospective JIS members to blend into society by marrying, getting a job, and dressing casually. The document also instructed followers to study Arabic, acquire two pistols with silencers, and learn how to make bombs.

Washington then recruited Patterson, an employee at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and another individual, Hamad Riaz Samana, a Pakistani citizen, at the Jamaat-E-Masijudal mosque in Inglewood, California, where they all worshiped.

Ariz. inmate defense: No kidnapping DNA evidence

By OSKAR GARCIA
Associated Press

KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) - A defense lawyer for an Arizona inmate on trial for escaping and hijacking two truck drivers told a jury in Kingman on Wednesday that there's no physical evidence linking the prisoner to the crimes of which he is accused.

No DNA, fingerprints, forensic evidence or surveillance link John McCluskey, 46, to the kidnapping he's charged with, public defender Jason Steffen said.

"You can't find him guilty of any offense unless you decide the state has proved it beyond a reasonable doubt," Steffen said.

And prosecutors can't do that, he said.

The escape last July from Arizona State Prison in Golden Valley sparked a three-week, nationwide manhunt for McCluskey, two other inmates and a woman who acknowledged throwing cutting tools onto the grounds of the medium-security prison to help the men escape. McCluskey, another inmate and Casslyn Welch face separate murder charges in New Mexico, where they are accused of killing an Oklahoma couple while on the lam. The third inmate was caught separately in a shootout in Colorado a day after escaping.

Welch and inmate Tracy Province resolved their Arizona charges without trials.

Deputy County Attorney Victoria Stazio told jurors in her opening statement that McCluskey cut through a perimeter fence, ran into the desert and eventually confronted the drivers as they were pulled over, switching seats in their truck during a journey from California to Georgia.

"They told the drivers, 'Don't mess with us, we just escaped from prison,'" Stazio said.

McCluskey, with Welch and another inmate, threatened the truckers with guns and eventually drove them roughly 150 miles to Flagstaff, leaving them at a gas station, Stazio said. McCluskey drove the truck, she said.

Along the way, the group stopped at a gas station to pick up supplies, with surveillance showing Welch buying items that were later found in the truck, Stazio said.

McCluskey also told the drivers, "You guys are lucky, you're alive because of her," Stazio told the jury.

McCluskey had been serving a 15-year prison term for attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm when he escaped. He previously did time in Pennsylvania related to a string of armed robberies in the 1990s.

The prosecution called its first witnesses Wednesday in a trial that is expected to last until Friday. The truck drivers, who require interpreters, will likely testify Thursday, Stazio said.

Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 200809

Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, V. 327, October 20, 1998 Through April 6, 1999

Educating the Muslims of America

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