Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Terror Attack Has Britons Questioning De-Radicalization Effort

Jamie Dettmer

   LONDON - When Usman Khan left prison last December after serving half
   of a 16-year sentence for his part in a plot to blow up the London
   Stock Exchange, and for planning to establish a terror training camp in
   Pakistan, he was thought to be making good progress towards being
   de-radicalized and was seen as a poster boy for Britain's
   rehabilitation programs.

   Cambridge University, which ran one of the programs Khan attended, was
   even considering offering him a place to study.

   But now following 28-year-old's dramatic knife attack Friday on London
   Bridge during a university-sponsored justice event, which left two
   people dead and three seriously injured, the early release of convicted
   terrorists, as well as de-radicalization programs, are coming under
   immediate scrutiny amid accusations that militants are gaming the
   rehabilitation system and hoodwinking authorities.

   Some criminal justice experts say Khan played the rehabilitation system
   cleverly to secure his release and to lull his probation officers into
   allowing him to travel unsupervised from his home in the English county
   of Staffordshire to London for the justice event, where he killed two
   rehabilitation tutors, 25-year-old Jack Merritt and 23-year-old Saskia
   Jones.

   "Despite the monitoring he was subjected to, he was able to convince
   everyone he was well on the way to being a reformed character,"
   according to Harry Fletcher, a criminal justice expert and campaigner
   for victims' rights. Khan's attack wasn't opportunistic, but
   deliberately planned, say British counter-terror officials.

   With fears mounting that other recently freed terrorists may also be
   playing the system, a crackdown has been launched that's likely to see
   a large number of them returned to prison. One of Khan's close
   associates, 34-year-old Nazam Hussain, who was freed from jail the same
   day as the London Bridge killer, was re-arrested Sunday on suspicion of
   preparing terrorist acts.

   At least 74 freed terrorists are being vetted again, according to
   British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said in a broadcast interview
   Sunday that they all needed to be "properly invigilated so as to make
   sure there is no threat to the public."

.