Judge Orders ISIS Recruit to Rehab, Not Jail

An American citizen who pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS was ordered by a federal judge to leave jail—and go to a halfway home instead. That rehab center was run by a group that had no prior experience with would-be Islamic terrorists, The Daily Beast has learned.

Abdullahi Yusuf of Minnesota was allowed to depart from jail and stay at a halfway home after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to the so-called Islamic State widely known as ISIS in January. (Yusuf was stopped at the airport trying to fly to Turkey in May 2014, at age 18.) Once inside the halfway home, Yusuf was to be “de-radicalized” through regular meetings with a counselor whose curriculum looked more like a high-school civics course than religious deprogramming.

His attorney proposed the de-radicalization program and Judge Michael Davis approved it over prosecutors’ objections. In a memorandum, the assistant U.S. attorneys trying Yusuf’s case reiterated their concerns about this program for Yusuf, because they said he had evaded his parents’ supervision and lied to authorities. Nevertheless, Judge Davis released him with an electronic monitoring device around his ankle.

Prosecutors and judges may warm to the idea of rehab, but the public may be more reluctant to give a second chance to people seeking to join a group best known for beheading Americans.

… 

“I think that explicitly making it part of the government’s arsenal” is good, said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy.

He cautioned against offering it as an alternative to incarceration, however.

“There is a huge incentive for people to claim false de-radicalization” in those cases, Gartenstein-Ross said.

…

Read the full article here.