Update on Jailed terrorist leads attack on prison officer

From The Times

Anti-terrorism police are investigating a serious attack on a prison officer at one of the country’s top-security jails yesterday by two inmates wearing fake suicide vests.

Five prison officers, one of whom is female, were taken to hospital after two Muslim inmates assaulted an officer at Whitemoor jail in Cambridgeshire. One of the attackers is a terrorist prisoner and the other is a recent convert who is not serving a sentence for a terrorism-related offence.

The Times understands that one of the attackers is Brusthom Ziamani, 24, who was jailed in 2015 for plotting to behead a British army cadet.

Confirmed by the BBC. 

HMP Whitemoor: Brusthom Ziamani named as attack suspect.  Brusthom Ziamani, 24, who was found guilty of preparing an act of terrorism in 2015. . . jailed for planning to behead a soldier . . . During his trial at the Old Bailey it was revealed that Ziamani had been inspired by the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby and used the internet to research cadet bases.

He converted to Islam in 2014 and, months later, was arrested in east London in possession of a 12-inch-long knife and a hammer. Ziamani was 18 when held in 2014 as part of a joint operation by the Met Police and MI5. He was jailed for 22 years but the sentence was later reduced on appeal.

Ziamani was assisted by another prisoner, a Muslim convert who was serving time for a violent offence. Ziamani is known to have more influence and control over other prisoners than should be tolerated. 

Both the attackers were carrying improvised bladed weapons that they used to slash and stab the officer and colleagues who came to support him. One attacker shouted jihadist slogans, including “Allahu akbar”, during the assault, which took place after inmates’ cells had been unlocked.

HMP Whitemoor is a maximum security prison which houses more than 450 inmates including some of the country’s most dangerous terrorists.  

It was where the London Bridge terrorist, Usman Khan, was held before after being convicted of plotting to blow up the London Stock Exchange. Following his release he was invited back to the prison to give a talk to inmates about his rehabilitation. That worked well. 

Sources said there was no obvious trigger or warning in the run up to Thursday morning’s attack, leading police to believe the motive may have been ideological. How astute.

Scotland Yard said because of the nature of the incident officers from its SO15 Counter Terror command were leading the investigation, but at this stage were keeping an open mind as to the motivation.

HMP Whitemoor was previously the subject of a damning report that warned of a dangerous culture of radicalisation within the prison. Extremist inmates were accused of pressuring other prisoners to convert to Islam with those who refused facing intimidation and violence.

I have said this before but the authorities should look at holding Islamic prisoners, both rape jihad, direct jihad and financial jihad in a modern day version of the Millbank Penitentiary or the Panopticon. Somewhere they can be kept quietly away from infecting other prisoners or encouraging each other. I realise that the solitary process died out as the rate of mental illness among prisoners was high but this is a different age. The prisoners then were men and women used to a very high level of companionship; many members of one family living in one room, several to a bed, noisy heaving streets. The sudden loneliness of solitude and silence would have been a jolt. Islam is an ideology that already mandates veiling and seclusion for its womenfolk; and sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.