Texas Prisoners Monitored for Terrorist Links
Sat, Nov 15, 2003 at 8:59:15 pm PST
Here’s some good news that shows our officials may not be sound asleep after all; inmates at Texas’s 114 prisons are being watched for ties to Islamic terrorist groups after a video was intercepted showing a Muslim imam spewing anti-American hatred: Inmates monitored for possible terrorist links.
"Our interest is the security of our institutions and the safety of the public," John Moriarty, inspector general of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the Austin American-Statesman. "We have had some successes. That's about all I can say."Officials declined to elaborate other than to say one involved a former Iraqi soldier, another involved a Texas group targeted by federal officials for its alleged ties to terrorists, and another involved an outside radical group.
As many as 300 letters a week written in Arabic, Farsi or other Middle Eastern languages are opened, copied and forwarded to the FBI for translation and review.
State officials say inmates under scrutiny aren't just Middle Eastern or Muslim.
About 150 imprisoned Texas felons are of Middle Eastern descent – a fraction of the 150,000 total prisoners. But the state's population of 7,600 Muslim inmates is among the largest in the nation.
The program began about two years ago after officials intercepted a video tape being sent to a prisoner which showed a Muslim imam blaming the United States for declaring war against Islam.
