Fifty convicted terrorists are due to be released from the U.S. federal prison system in the coming decade, a Congressional Research Service report says.
The average convicted terrorist only serves approximately 13 years in federal prison before being released, the Associated Press explained Saturday. The majority of the terror inmates are held at the highest security facilities in the U.S. and enjoy some contact inside the prison system.
“There’s no net to catch them. There is no way to make sure they don’t re-engage in extremism,” National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism researcher Patrick James declared to the AP.
The inmates coming release has sparked fear among experts that they will return to terrorist activity or attempt to travel to the field of jihad. Many terror inmates released from Guantanamo bay have returned to the battlefield and once again engaged in terrorism.
Of the terrorists released from Guantanamo bay, 121 have returned to the field of jihad, the U.S. intelligence community said in December. Each of the terrorists were “confirmed” to be re-engaged in terrorist activity. Ex-Guantanamo bay detainee Jamal al-Harith appeared in a recent ISIS propaganda video before blowing himself up in the battle for Mosul in Iraq.
In early July, former Guantanamo bay detainee Abu Wa’el Dhiab went missing in South America after he likely bordered a flight with a fake passport. The Obama administration released Dhiab to Uruguay in 2014. Uruguay insisted that Dhiab could travel without restriction, raising questions about the safety of releasing known terrorists to countries willing to take them.
In 2007, the U.S. released Taliban commander Abdul Qayyum Zakir from Guantanamo Bay to the government of Afghanistan. Zakir was subsequently released from Afghan prison for no apparent reason and returned to the Afghan battlefield as a senior Taliban commander.
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