New York, May 22 (ANI): The four terror suspects, who were charged with plotting to blow up two New York synagogues and shoot down military planes, converted to Islam and became radicalised while serving time in jail.
Experts have warned that US jails could be the latest boiling pot for Islamic radicalism.
Friends and families of James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen confirmed that they became Muslims while in prison, where they began on a path toward terrorist violence, that law enforcement officials say is part of a troubling trend in America.
"The prison's isolated environment, ability to create a 'captive audience' atmosphere, its absence of day-to-day distractions, and its large population of disaffected young men, makes it an excellent breeding ground for radicalization," Fox News quoted a New York Police Department report released in 2006, as stating.
Security experts said America has an emerging threat from those who embrace "Prison Islam," which is a twisted version of the religion.
Charismatic leaders can recruit prisoners to their cause and further swell the ranks of the radicals.
"These radicalized inmates either feel discriminated against in the United States or feel that the United States oppresses minorities and Muslims overseas," Donald Van Duyn, chief intelligence officer for the FBI, said.
Such is the story of James Cromitie, claims the report.
Cromitie, the apparent ringleader of the four alleged terrorists from Newburgh, told an FBI informant that "he was upset about the war" in Afghanistan and "unhappy that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the United States Military forces."
In 2005, a group of cons was preparing terrorist attacks on Jewish and government targets around Los Angeles, but it was disrupted soon.
A coordinated yearlong investigation brought down the cell allegedly planning attacks on the synagogues in New York this week.
Prison radicals have been most active on the West Coast and in the Northeast, law enforcing agencies say. (ANI)
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