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ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz Colson's complaintOpponents of faith-based prison programs are enabling terrorists, says Watergate felon Charles ColsonThose opposed to faith-based prison projects are blind to the threat of terrorism in the "homeland" from former inmates who have converted to Islam while in America's prisons, Charles Colson charged in a recent BreakPoint website commentary published by Prison Fellowship Ministries. Colson's charge is "shocking, despicable and inflammatory" says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation Stung by a federal district court judge's recent decision that his InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a faith-based prison program operating in Iowa's prisons is unconstitutional, Colson, one of President Richard Nixon's key operatives during the Watergate years and currently the head of Prison Fellowship Ministries (website), is using a new report about the growing threat of Islamic terrorists being recruited in U.S. prisons to argue that support for his faith-based prison program is essential if terrorist attacks in this country are to be prevented. In his BreakPoint commentary titled "What's Hidden in the Shadows: Radical Islam and U.S. Prisons," Colson, who founded Prison Fellowship Ministries after serving time in prison for Watergate-related crimes, warned that a terrorist attack in the homeland could be spearheaded by "home-grown Islamist radicals" who are converting to Islam while in prison. "I don't usually make predictions," Colson wrote, "but here's one He pointed to a recent study titled, "Out of the Shadows: Getting Ahead of prisoner Radicalization", produced by researchers from George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute and the University of Virginia's Critical Incident Analysis Group, that concluded that "the U.S....is at risk of facing the sort of homegrown terrorism currently plaguing other countries." The basis of that risk, is America's "large prison population." According to the report, "With the world's largest prison population (over 2 million -- 93 percent of whom are in state and local prisons and jails) and highest incarceration rate (701 out of every 100,000), America faces what could be an enormous challenge -- every radicalized prisoner becomes a potential terrorist recruit." "Radicalized prisoners" within this population "are a potential pool of recruits by terrorist groups," the study says. The report notes that the absence of "monitoring by authoritative Islamic chaplains" permits "materials that advocate violence [to infiltrate] the prison system undetected." Some of the materials that the newly converted receive urge Muslim prisoners "to wage war against non-Muslims who have not submitted to Islamic rule." One former employee of an Islamist group told a Senate committee, "I know of only a few instances in which prisons rejected the literature we attempted to distribute--and it was never because of the literature's radicalism." Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) has called the situation "an emerging threat to our national security." While not getting into it in any thorough way, the report also acknowledged the presence in prisons of right-wing homegrown extremists "which have an extensive history of terrorists attacks." "Out of the Shadows" recommends the establishment of a "Commission to investigate this issue in depth." It calls for "an objective risk assessment...to better understand the nature of the threat," in order to "address this issue now, rather than [managing] a crisis later." Although the report doesn't go into any details regarding evangelical Christian-focused faith-based prison programs, Colson does. He said that he has been warning about the potential terrorist threat from Muslims who are radicalized while in prison since 2001. He believes that recent court decisions against his faith-based prison projects have exacerbated the problem, and that greater government support for Christian faith-based prison programs are the way to go. Colson then directly attacks groups that have opposed his InnerChange Freedom Initiative. "The largely unimpeded spread of radical Islam through our prisons coincides with increased opposition to the one really successful antidote--that is, the presence of Christianity," Colson wrote. "An obvious example is the lawsuit against our prison program in Iowa. Programs like ours are working. We have studies to prove it. And they are the best solution to the alienation and rage that fuels conversions to radical Islam, as well as gangs and other hate groups inside the prisons. Making it harder for organizations like Prison Fellowship to operate within prison walls leaves jihadists and other radical groups as the only game in town." Colson singles out Barry Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, for special condemnation. "Unfortunately, opponents like...Lynn...are blind to this, which puts more than the program at risk--because, as we saw in the case of the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, groups that are now operating in the shadows of our prisons are a real danger to us." "Colson's comments were astonishing," Lynn told me in a telephone interview. "When I read it I could hardly believe what I was reading. "There literally appears to be no level that Charles Colson will not stoop to these days. In this political climate, calling someone an aider and abettor of terrorism is the worst thing you can call somebody. He seems to have run out of any sensible arguments so he is turning to lies and character assassination." Lynn is no stranger to being vilified by conservative Christians. At the recent Value Voters Summit, both James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, and Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, "took shots at Americans United, griping about an AU project to send letters to houses of worship in 11 states being targeted by the Religious Right, warning them that they could endanger their tax-exempt status if they endorse or oppose candidates for public office," Americans United's Jeremy Leaming reported. The Rev. Herb Lusk "suggested that Lynn [who attended the Summit] should not be discussed further. 'The enemy is out there,' Lusk bellowed. 'We know who our enemy is. The more you call the enemy's name, the larger he becomes.'" Despite Lusk's suggestion, Pastor Rick Scarborough, the President of Vision America and a proponent of the so-called War on Christians, "blasted Lynn for opposing church-based politicking. For good measure, Scarborough called the separation of church and state a 'bald-faced lie.'" Lynn, whose recently published book is titled "Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom" (Random House, 2006), thinks that Colson's playing of the terrorism card is clearly a sign of desperation. "He realizes that his programs are on shaky ground because of the Iowa decision," Lynn pointed out. "He can't make a legal argument; in fact, in the 38 months during which the case was pending Prison Fellowship never presented the success of the InnerChange program because he did not want that evidence to be subject to cross examination by our side." Colson's charge that opponents of his faith-based prison programs are enabling terrorism is "shocking, despicable and inflammatory" Annie Laurie Gaylor, the co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an organization that has filed several suits against government sponsored faith-based programs, told me in an early-October telephone interview from San Francisco where her organization was holding its convention. "It's a gross insult to people who are opposed to Colson's faith-based programs to link them with terrorism." Gaylor said that prisoners should be provided with "compassion-based initiatives and not faith-based initiatives. The government should provide educational opportunities and job training programs so that prisoners can get decent paying jobs when they are released." Colson's commentary also pointed to "studies" that "prove" that faith-based prison programs like his "are the best solution to the alienation and rage that fuels conversions to radical Islam...inside the prisons." However, one of the key studies frequently referred to by Colson and his organizational spokespersons has been criticized for playing fast and loose with both its methodology and its conclusions, according to Claire Hughes a correspondent for The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy. In late August, Hughes wrote that "A study completed three years ago by the University of Pennsylvania Center for Research on Religion in Urban Civil Society on Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative and touted by the Bush Administration showed that after two years out of prison, only eight percent of InnerChange graduates were re-incarcerated, compared to 20 percent of inmates in the general population. But," Hughes pointed out, "the study drew criticism for defining 'graduates' as those who had obtained jobs. When other program participants were included, the data, as reported in the studies, showed that InnerChange participants were more likely to be re-incarcerated than the general population of ex-prisoners." sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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Charles Colson fights ruling against his religious based prison program
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