((PKG)) REFORMED JIHADIST
((Banner: A Change of Heart and Mind))
((Reporter: Carolyn Presutti))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum, Carolyn Presutti))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((NATS))
((Courtesy: YouTube))
((Locator: New York, New York 2009))
America wants to conquer your land, conquer your resources, kill you brothers, maim your sisters.
((Locator: Arlington, VA 2018))
((JESSE MORTON, FORMER JIHADIST, PARALLEL NETWORKS))
I found Islam as a means to project my pre-existing grievances. So, rather than gravitate towards an Islam that in the beginning gave me structure, gave me five prayers a day, gave me fasting in Ramadan and ability to control my desires, a code to live by that was spiritual, that was ethical, I quite naturally was more interested in a politicized, radical and revolutionary interpretation of Islam, but that had much more to do with the fact that I was abused as a child, ran away at a very young age, never really, I was an old soul too soon, so to say.
((MITCHELL SIBER, FORMER NYPD INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR))
Jesse was a marked man for us. Younus Abdullah Muhammad, he was the boogey man.
((JESSE MORTON, FORMER JIHADIST, PARALLEL NETWORKS))
In my own mind, in the mind of Younus Abdullah Muhammad, I should say, my grievance was that the United States was waging a war against Islam, that the only way for human beings to live was under Allah’s commandments or his legislation, and that it was incumbent upon every Muslim to work for the establishment of that Islamic system all over the globe, wherever they might find themselves. So, my grievance inside of myself I thought it was a projected grievance about an objective understanding of the world around me, that the United States was an imperialist force, that it was heading a war against Islam.
((MITCHELL SIBER, FORMER NYPD INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR))
Well, it really started as a partnership just about an article. For him to talk about what it was like being a leader of an Islamist group in the United States, that was responsible for 15 plots, or attempted attacks around the world.
((JESSE MORTON, FORMER JIHADIST, PARALLEL NETWORKS))
There’s no formal de-radicalization initiative inside of the Bureau of Prisons and there’s no real formal or informal program that seeks to approach these individuals and try to engage in correspondence with them throughout their time of their incarceration. There’s also no program that’s official or unofficial with regard to providing re-entry and re-integration services, and I do know that like people inside of government, particularly inside the Bureau of Prisons, are interested in doing something, but the first rule should be, “Do no harm”.
((MITCHELL SIBER, FORMER NYPD INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR))
We have about in excess of 60 people who are going to be released from jail in the next five years, who have served time for terrorism-related crimes, yet there is no program in the U.S. to re-integrate them into society. And that could be a fear that these individuals, without some type of program, recidivize into terrorism.
((JESSE MORTON, FORMER JIHADIST, PARALLEL NETWORKS))
So, immediately you come out of something and you realize that you don’t want to be a part of it, right? But then you don’t really know why you don’t want to be a part of it until you process it. And it’s my theory that until you can write about it, you haven’t recovered from it. Until you can write to your old self and say, “This is where you were wrong and this is what you were feeling at the time”, and you can get that out. It’s one thing to be able to say it. It’s another thing to have to sit down with yourself and be able to articulate it. Because then you have to scrutinize it.
((NATS))
