Terrorist Rehabilitation- A Global Imperative

Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism
Vol. 6, NO. 1, April 201 1, 65-82
Routledge

FORUM
Terrorist rehabilitation: a global imperative
Rohan Gunaratna
International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVT), Singapore
Keywords: counter-radicalisation; de-radicalisation; terrorism rehabilitationIntroduction

Rehabilitation is to help someone return to normal life by providing education,
training, and therapy. Those exposed to and convinced by terrorist ideology do not
lead normal lives They adopt the writings and speeches of ideologues that espouse
hatred and transform themselves Whether they are operational terrorists or
extremist supporters, they believe that violence and other extreme measures are
acceptable means to bring about political change. Terrorists and their supporters
are not mainstream but are extreme. To facilitate their return to the mainstream from
the extreme, they must be rehabilitated. Unless a terrorist is rehabilitated before his
release from custody, he is likely to pose a security threat to the government and a
societal threat to the community upon his return. As his belief system did not
undergo change, he is likely to contaminate others with his ideals and recruit them to
advance his cause.
Unlike economically-motivated criminals, brief or prolonged incarceration is
unlikely to change the belief system of ideologically-driven terrorists. Terrorist
rehabilitation is different from criminal rehabilitation. Those terrorists or supporters
released from custody have repeatedly offended after their release. This includes
those detained and released from the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba. The Muslim world perceived Guantanamo Bay as revenge by the US and not
as justice by them and, as such, many returnees received a hero's welcome in their
own countries. Upon release, the terrorists who were not transformed or experienced
radicalisation during detention, advocated, supported, or committed acts of violence.
As those detained in Guantanamo Bay were not rehabilitated, they often remained
committed to the philosophy of Al Qaeda and its associated groups.
Rehabilitation is the answer to two grave challenges the world is faced with today.
First, A1 Qaeda and its family of groups that specifically target Muslim populations.
The contemporary wave of violence and counter violence produces terrorist recruits
and extremist supporters. Those exposed to the vicious ideology believe in the
philosophy and methodology of Al Qaeda. They need to be ideologically and
theologically rehabilitated, Second, contemporary detention and prison conditions
contribute to radicalisation. Unless detainees and inmates are kept in isolation, they
become susceptible to indoctrination and training by fellow detainees and inmates.
In most penitentiary and detention facilities, detainees and inmates are housed communally. In some facilities, both criminal inmates and security detainees are colocated leading to an exchange of skills and will as well as co-recruitment and
alliances that persist after release. f
The reverse of radicalisation in custody is rehabilitation. To address the abovementioned problems, rehabilitation should be made available in every facility
housing terrorist detainees and inmates. After examining the practices of terrorist
rehabilitation programs, this paper argues why a global regime on terrorist
rehabilitation is necessary.

The context
he global campaign against terrorism has been dominated by an overwhelming
kinetic response. The lethal operations have temporarily disrupted terrorist operational
infrastructures but have not disrupted the conceptual infrastructures driving
extremism and terrorism. The modus operandi to catch, kill, and disrupt terrorist
organisations is having a boomerang effect. Although the operational capabilities of
terrorist groups have been reduced in some theatres, the motives and intentions of the
terrorists to fight back have grown, protracting the fight.
In some countries, soft power has been cast aside as hard powers are wielded. The
combination-smart poweris used only by a very few nations. Whilst the use of
operational measures should not be disregarded, an equal amount of attention has
not been given to the strategic fight-the battle of ideas. Ideological and intellectual
infrastructures form the foundations of the terrorist movement. As the environment
remains permissive, ideology remains the lifeblood of contemporary terrorist groups
and movements. Terrorist ideologies can only be de-legitimised by ideological and
theological refutation. To safeguard the next generation of youth from the lure of
fighting and the appeal of extremist ideology, counter ideology must be incorporated
into the counter-terrorism toolbox. Ideally, the two counter-ideology prongs of
community engagement and terrorist rehabilitation should be used in parallel.
By building community-based programs that aim to engage indoctrinated
extremists and rehabilitate operational terrorists, regeneration of violence can be
prevented. These programs can be built in partnership with the government. Terrorist
rehabilitation is a vital tool in the fight where incarcerated terrorists are engaged to
recant, repent, and express remorse for their thoughts and acts of violence.

The background
There are over 100,000 convicted and suspected terrorists languishing in penitentiary
and detention centres from Europe to the Middle East and Asia. Although there are
vocational and educational programs to rehabilitate criminals, there are very few
initiatives to rehabilitate terrorists. Though terrorist rehabilitation has been the topic of significant interest and debate from academic circles in the US to officials in Europe, there has been very little effort to examine the concepts, the processes, and the outcomes of terrorist rehabilitation. Despite significant study into terrorist mindsets and the ideologies driving them, terrorist rehabilitation remains the exception worldwide. Terrorist rehabilitation is not the norm.
During the Bush presidency, the US had an qportunity to start a rehabilitation
program in Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo). Instead, the US earned the anger of the
Muslim world by portraying images of muffled and chained men wearing orange
jumpsuits. Gitmo should have been divided into two sections, one of them being a
section where detainees who cooperatechreceived counselling, learnt livelihood skills,
- played with their children, and met with their families. When released the Gitmo detainees were more radicalised than when they were brought in. As there was no
rehabilitation program it was very seldom that, upon release, detainees gave up their
ways As the battlefield of the mind was not addressed, nearly 100 former detainees
have returned to the fight. President Obama signed a decree on 22 January 2009
ordering the closure of the detention centre. Most countries receiving the Gitmo
detainees have no rehabilitation programs. Thus, there is an urgent need for countries to develop rehabilitation programs.

Egypt pioneered the idea of religious rehabilitation in the 1990s. A1 Azhar
scholars and other counsellors as well as the historical leadership of a1 Gama a1
Islamiyah a1 Masri (Islamic Group of Egypt) began to influence detainees and
inmates to abandon violence and build peace. Programs for rehabilitating communist
terrorists in Malaysia and Singapore were developed in the 1960s and 1970s but these
were not elaborate. Communism in Asia was not a global threat and religion was not
the basis for the ideological mindset in that era. Resolution of the problem at
the time was contextual. After realising the scale of the threat following the A1
Qaeda attacks on the US on 11 September 2001, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
Uzbekistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia developed national rehabilitation programs.
Since then the process of detainee and inmate rehabilitation has been gaining
popularity worldwide. As a new frontier in counter-terrorism practice, rehabilitation
programs have provided degrees of success in countries that have adopted them.
Some programs, such as those in Singapore, have been developed with community
participation where clerics and scholars have volunteered to counsel detainees and
other well-meaning individuals and institutions have provided for the detainee
families. In such counter-terrorism and extremism initiatives, participation and
ownership by the community is an important first step in the right direction.
Why terrorist rehabilitation?

Rehabilitation should become a complementary strategy in the ongoing fight against
terrorism and extremism. Today, many arrested terrorists are not considered as
requiring treatment. They are either treated as criminals or prisoners of war.
However, unlike common criminals, terrorists carry an ideology. The mind is the
most powerful weapon against their enemies and opponents. By unlocking the mind,
a terrorist can be made to reflect and re-examine his own ideas and thoughts. This is
why terrorist rehabilitation is unique. Still in an experimental phase, terrorist
rehabilitation requires visionary leadership, government-community partnership,
and a well-resourced specialist program of dedicated and trained staff.
Terrorist rehabilitation is based on the theory that mere punishment through
imprisonment is not enough to permanently reform and facilitate their re-integration
into society upon release. Particularly for the Islamist terror detainees, the ideological
debate or religious counselling sessions are a very important component of the
rehabilitation program. This is because their behaviour and ways of thinking are
based on an incorrect understanding or misinterpretation of Islamic concepts.
Hence, the counselling sessions serve to provide them with the correct understanding
of Islam and its leading concepts. This correct understanding will not only forestall
future criminal acts, but will also convince them that such behaviour is inappropriate and misguided. Consequently, this may bring about congenuine feelings of remorse and repentance, hence permanently removing the source of motivation for their involvement in terrorist and extremist-related activities.

The global threat coming from violent extremist ideology requires captured
terrorists to be rehabilitated before they are released. Unless they abandon the idea
of violence before they are released, they will contaminate others with their ideas,
and support and commit acts of violence. The disengagement strategy used should
incorporate incentives, re-education, and rehabilitation. As an essential element in
the fight against extremism, detainee and inmate rehabilitation is the reverse of
, terrorist indoctrination. De-radicalization is both detainee and inmate rehabilitation, and community engagement. Such de-radicalization initiatives can proactively and reactively counter the contemporary wave of extremism.

To share global best practices, build a network, and chart the future of terrorist
rehabilitation, Singapore hosted the first International Conference on Terrorist
Rehabilitation (ICTR) from 24-26 February 2009. Organised by the International
Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research and the Religious Rehabilitation
Group of Singapore, the three-day international conference included 200 delegates and
participants from 20 countries that have existing and aspiring rehabilitation programs.

The world's leading practitioners and scholars on detainee and inmate rehabilitation
presented at this conference. Security and intelligence specialists, psychologists,
religious counsellors, social workers, and other practitioners active in the process of rehabilitating extremists and terrorists all participated. To learn from global best practice and understand the gaps in knowledge, the national programs shared their experience and future plans. The conference was designed not only as a listening and learning event but also an event that will allow participants to focus on the steps to be undertaken in the near future. The understanding gained, the knowledge developed, and the network built aimed at taking rehabilitation to a national level to building support for establishing a global regime in terrorist rehabilitation.

The 'human terrain' is key
The contemporary wave of ideologically-driven violence presents a series of new
challenges. Most of our countries have built the skill and will to fight using security and intelligence services, the military, and enforcement authorities. However, most countries have not adequately developed the ideological and intellectual understanding,knowledge, and structures to counter the conceptual terrorist infrastructures.

To reduce the immediate threat, operational terrorists should be hunted. But,
for strategic peace, the reality of the world needs to be corrected. For success, the
government should understand that human terrain is the key.

Unlike the previous generation of threat groups, A1 Qaeda understood the
importance of the human terrain and placed a premium on using new media and
technology to spread its message. Many years have passed since A1 Qaeda attacked
America's most iconic landmarks on 11 September 2001, but governments are still
best at using lethal, kinetic, and hard power. By investing heavily in operational
counter terrorism-catch, kill, and disrupt-we cannot win the fight in totality. To
reverse the current global trend, greater strategic capabilities to win hearts and minds and platforms for engagement should be built. Qe future is about preventing the
creation of extremists and terrorists through community engagement and offender
reintegration into the community through rehabilitation.

Forum: Terrorist rehabilitation
Terrorism presents the tier-one national security threat to most countries. No
country is immune from the threat oktremism or its vicious by-product, terrorism.
Even if governments built the most capable military, law enforcement, and national
P security agencies, no government can guarantee total security from terrorism. The
threat is diverse, complex, and global. Truly transnational threats, terrorism, and
extremism permeate territorial borders and communities. If any single country or
region is producing terrorists and extremists, other countries and regions will remain at risk. There should be recognition that no country is too big to secure itself without the cooperation of others. Similarly, no country is too small when it comes to contribution to global security.

Currently, cooperatiqn and collaboration are largely on the operational arena
and not at the ideological frontier. To make rehabilitation a part of the solution at a global level a more concerted effort is needed. More than ever before, the world
needs expertise and dedication to make this transition from local to regional, and
national to international.

The neglected battlefield
Today, the most significant terrorist threat emanates from a global movement,
underpinned by a violent politico-religious ideology. Political incompetence drives it,
and religious misinterpretation legitimises it. Members of this movement seek to
overturn regimes they consider to be apostate through violent and undemocratic
means. The local and international grievances of the Muslim masses are exploited to
help construct a picture of a modem world hostile towards Islam and Muslims. The
threat driven by a volatile ideology can never be adequately addressed by military
and law enforcement actions. A paradigm shift must occur.
A terrorist suffers from exposure to terrorist propaganda and indoctrination.
A vicious by-product of society, perhaps he was more susceptible and vulnerable to
the terrorist message than other members of society. By skilful approaches and
interviews, it is possible to map the detainees' ideological, theological, and
intellectual makeup, as well as his orientations and inclinations. After discerning
the terrorist narrative that prompted him to cross the line, the factors that radicalised
him to hate, conceive, plan, prepare, and attack can be identified. The understanding
and knowledge to strategically fight the contemporary wave of radicalisation and
violence rests within that terrorist. Rehabilitation allows communication with the
captured terrorist, challenging his thoughts and ideas, as well as allaying any
misgivings he might harbour. Such an approach will eventually defeat terrorism by
decreasing the need for militaristic means.
The battlefield of the mind is the neglected battlefield. A strategic investment,
fighting the battlefield of the mind is less costly. Extricating the negative thoughts
and replacing them with realistic thoughts is a more humanitarian approach.
Making terrorist rehabilitation mandated by law will have other benefits. It will
reduce humiliation, abuse, and torture, routine in most detention facilities and
penitentiaries in the developing world.
Modes 6f rehabilitation
Rehabilitation requires engaging the beneficiary on all its facets. A successful
program must recognise all modes of rehabilitation. Within each mode of
rehabilitation, there are various styles The four principal modes of rehabilitation are:religious rehabilitation; psychological rehabilitation; social rehabilitation; vocational rehabilitation and Religious rehabilitation.
Every religion promotes peace and harmony and values tolerance. However; religious
ideology has been used to provide legitimacy in the justification for violence.
Although all the great religions teach us compassion, tolerance, and moderation,
religion is misused in the process to influence and convince people. In the past two
decades we have witnessed terrorism stemming from the propagation of deviant
versions of Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Only the
religious teachers and scholars can correct this by addressing incorrect interpretations
and incorrect teachings. Many terrorists believe that the US, its allies, and its
friends are deliberately attacking Islam and killing Muslims. They are made to
believe that the West is the 'Satan' and a religious obligation binds them to attack the
US, its allies, and its friends. Through the imposition of an extremist and militant
interpretation of Islam, the terrorists are committed to re-establishing the Caliphate.
To derive legitimacy for their struggle, they interpret the Qur'an and other religious
scriptures in a manner that portrays them as the true guardians of Islam. Learned
Islamic scholars and clerics have the understanding, knowledge, and authority to
correct the Islamic misconceptions a terrorist holds. Unfortunately, among religious
communities, the realisation of the dangers of extremist ideas has not been
significantly and adequately addressed. Only the clerics of religion are equipped to
address this urgent issue. If the right formula is not applied, the terrorist message will
spread to epidemic proportions. A systematic methodology is needed to bring the
misguided back to the right path. Singapore's Religious Rehabilitation Group
produced two manuals in 2004 and in 2009 to aid religious counselling of Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI) detainees held by the Internal Security Department (ISD), the security
and intelligence service of Singapore. In addition to imparting structured counselling
sessions, the detainees are provided with religious texts to correct their misconceptions
about Islam. In addition to the Qur'an, books on Tafsir (exegesis of Qur'an), Hadith
(sayings and deeds of Prophet), Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), and Sirah (the Prophet's
history) are provided.
In the process of religious rehabilitation, the terrorists' errors in thinking and
their worldview need to be eradicated. This includes their tendency to think in a
binary mode (I am good, everyone else is evil) and a sense of exclusivity (us versus
them mentality). Second, there is a need to shatter the myths surrounding
misunderstood Islamic concepts e.g., glorifying suicide bombing as a form of Jihad
in the name of God and the concept of allegiance and non-allegiance in which
terrorists believe that their loyalty is only to God, His Messenger, and Muslims who
abide to their interpretation of Islam, while demanding that Muslims hate and do not
have any association with non-Muslims or 'impure' Muslims.
After extricating the negative ideology and concept, there is a need to replace
them with the accurate mainstream religious concepts including the true meaning of
Jihad in Islam and the correct way to treat non-Muslims Finally, terrorists are to be
imrnunised against future challenges by providing them a wholesome understanding
of religion.

Forum: Terrorist rehabilitation
The services of Ustazahs (female clerics) are also made available to counsel wives.
In some cases, the husbands have tried t~ indoctrinate the wife and the children with
extremist beliefs and thoughts. As the husband went through a period of exposure to '- deviant teachings, the wife must be supported to understand that the husband has
been propagating an incorrect understanding of the faith. Counselling extended to
the wife must challenge the benefits of propagating extremist thoughts and beliefs
within the family. In the future, the wife must neither propagate nor facilitate such
views within the family. Some wives, especially those who attended similar classes,
were highly exposed to radical ideology. When the husbands became very secretive,
wives were left confused by their husband's ideology and behaviour. As such, it is
necessary for wives to be provided with religious counselling. Some of the children of
the JI members were exposed to the JI ideologies. To prevent them becoming a new
generation of JI members, mothers are counselled with the aim of facilitating the
recognition of errors and enabling them to promote a correct understanding to guide
their children to follow the correct principles.
Through a combination of tools, a terrorist who needs help can be reformed.
While psychological, vocational, and social and family rehabilitation can change one's
heart and mind, the most powerful is religious rehabilitation. Religious rehabilitation
has the power to unlock the mind of a detainee or an inmate. It has the power to
make a beneficiary of rehabilitation repent, become remorseful, and re-enter the
mainstream.

Psychological rehabilitation
The psychologist adds an important dimension to the rehabilitation process.
Psychology enables us to understand why some cross the line and kill. The
methodology involves psychological profiling, assessment, and solutions From a
psychological perspective, it is much easier to change behaviour with rewards than
with punishment. Introducing a carrot to accompany the many sticks we have means
that the reformation of terrorists may be less costly. By showing the beneficiaries that
they can benefit from both denouncing a violent ideology and from adopting prosocial
behaviour/ideology, their reasons to fight will be nullified.
The captured terrorists must be convinced that their imprisonment or detention is
to allow them to participate in a rehabilitation program. They must be assured of
getting all the help they need to understand their current situation and how to avoid
falling into the same behavioural patterns that trapped them in the first place. For
this, they must be given access to enter into dialogue with qualified clerics and
scholars of Islam. Their genuine concern for the suffering of Muslims in places such
as Gaza and the West Bank, Iraq, and Afghanistan must not be dismissed as
extremism. On the contrary, it should be considered as a window that can provide
greater understanding as to how the mind works. This will present counsellors with
the opportunity to strengthen the poor reasoning capacity and poor communication
skills most of them are known to have. Whenever they manifest emotional
attachment to a certain issue, counsellors must help them develop a realistic attitude
to deal d t h the issue and seize the opportunity to diminish extremist thoughts,
beliefs, and behaviour. With all these benefits, rehabilitation becomes not a choice
but a must.
S o d rehabilitation
When the head of a family is detained, he ceases to be the breadwinner of the fainily.
As the family starts to suffer, both the wife and the children need assistance to
survive. Social rehabilitation becomes essential because the family is traumatised by
the detention. Social rehabilitation addresses the concerns of the family: the means of
livelihood for the family; the need for school for the children; and making sure the
wife and children have a roof over their head. Then family rehabilitation becomes a
part of social rehabilitation.
As a part of the community aftercare initiative, wives should be visited by
community and social workers. Children should not be socially isolated or treated as
if everyone in the family is a terrorist. It becomes necessary to take care of children in
a way where the children do not form the next generation of terrorists. By preventing
isolation and trauma, the family's reintegration into society is facilitated.
As a part of the social rehabilitation, social workers assigned to the program
. provided the children with required play items and helped them with school. To give
them strength to live, the community and social workers regularly visit and motivate
them. It is important to engage the family mentally and socially to prevent a build up
of anger and resentment. Otherwise, it would create the opportunity for extremists
and extremist groups to reach out to them. To deny bitterness and counter extremism,
community and social workers provide aftercare by way of jobs, monetary assistance,
and a fresh outlook. By the time the detainee is released, the family is also
transformed. Even after release, community and social workers should continue to
work with the family.
Singapore's Inter-Agency Aftercare Group is a voluntary community effort
between different MalayIMuslim agencies and organisations that provide assistance
to the families of the detainees, including their wives and children. Within the
aftercare framework, the unique approach by these agencies and organisations is
aimed at supporting the families of detainees during this difficult period. Yayasan
Mendaki (YM), Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP), and Taman Bacaan
focus on their specialised expertise, consolidate expert areas, and coordinate efforts
between different agencies for the benefit of the client. YM covers the educational
program and assistance in the form of tuition fee subsidy or program fee waiver that
it provides to the families. In addition to coordinating with Taman Bacaan and AMP
to help the families, YM also refers such families to relevant national agencies (e.g.,
CDCs, MOE, FSCs, and MUIS) and MalayIMuslim Organisations (e.g., TAA) for
financial assistance. In addition to crisis-management initiatives, AMP assists
spouses and children providing family counselling.
Vocational rehabilitation
To reintegrate the detainees and inmates back to society, they need to be guided and
prepared through the development of skills and educational attainment. Designed to
provide necessary skills for a job, vocational rehabilitation imparts skills useful to
detainees and inmates upon release. This ranges from teaching them metal and
woodwork, carpentry and masonry, dairy farming and agriculture, computer and
language skills, and self-study and distance education. Unlike the other modes of
rehabilitation, vocation rehabilitation runs a security risk. To minimize the risk,
Forum: Terrorist rehabilitation 73
detainees and inmates are not taught certain skills such as electronics, a capability
that could be used to build circuiafor bombs
More than in any other country, under the careful guidance of Major General
7 Douglas Stone, vocational rehabilitation was developed in Iraq to an unprecedented
level. Working with OSS, a US Department of Defense contractor specialising in
rehabilitation, and the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism
Research in Singapore, Dr Stone's vision and mission created renowned resident
expertise. After release, 'Picasso', a former A1 Qaeda detainee in Iraq with a talent
for art was recruited by OSS to teach art. A master theoretician and practitioner of
rehabilitation, Dr Stone built a wide-ranging program in Iraq, from which
governments interested in creating rehabilitation programs continue to benefit.
Coupled with vocational rehabilitation, the integration of art, dance, song, and other
cultural expressions into the rehabilitation package broadened the horizons of the
detainees. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia established a care centre in a suburb of
Riyadh with games, cooking, and the study of arts. A beneficiary of the centre,
Mohammed Dousery, a Guantanamo detainee for six years, said:
The centre prepared me to engage gradually with the rest of society. You can't go
directly from. Guantanamo bay to normal life. This is an extremely difficult thing, and
everything changes, Saudi changes and so does the rest of the world. I have a great wife,
and she is encouraging me to try and forget Guantanamo and she says to me; forget that
prison, you are a new man and you have a new life in front of you and you have your
family. Focus your concerns on this. This makes me feel much better (A1 Jazeera News,
2008, July 9).
The five compounds, each with capacity for 1200 people, support reintegration back
into Saudi society. The beneficiaries, as they are called, are able to swim, play
football, table tennis, and TV games. In an air-conditioned tent converted into a
dining hall that serves traditional food, they engage in dialogue. In vocational
rehabilitation, as in other modes, the range of activities is limited only by human
imagination.

A working model
There are practical dficulties in developing a universal model to rehabilitate
terrorists seeking to justify their actions through Islam. To start with, Islam comes to
every country in different ways As such, there is a need to understand diverse values
and traditions of the Muslim community--how they practice Islam, how they relate
to each other, and how they see the world. The econodc context, political
environment, and unique language and culture make standardisation a challenge.
Just as the security landscape in every country is different, so terrorists are also
different. As the conditions of capture, treatment during incarceration, as well as
release differ, there will not be one standard rehabilitation program. A government
can develop a standard model but it will be applicable to a specific threat group at a
specific place and time. Every rehabilitation program operates in the context of
a community. Although criminal justice and prison systems are unique to different
countries, an approach to rehabilitation must exist. Instead of a standard model, a
work* model on rehabilitation should consider a number of essential aspects.
First, those selected to undergo rehabilitation should be viewed as beneficiaries and
no longer as inmates or detainees. Most security prisoners and detainees are treated
poorly, at times harassed, and even tortured. Most guards have preconceived notions
of how to train detainees and inmates that lead them to act aggressively towards
them. As most penitentiaries and detention centres have no rehabilitation space, the
potential beneficiaries should be relocated to a facility that mirrors society. As the
beneficiary is to be released back in to society, he should no longer be isolated but
engaged. To build understanding and create a channel for peaceful articulation of
differences, an environment conducive for dialogue with the beneficiary should be
created.
Second, rehabilitation should begin on day one of arrest. If the captured terrorist is
beaten, he is likely to harbour a grudge and is very likely to remember the treatment
meted out to him. Even the best form of interview with a detainee is rapport based.
Threats and torture are unlikely to yield truthful information. Rehabilitation is a
painstaking process that requires patience, dedication, and reflection.
Third, rehabilitation is a collective effort not only by investigative officers and
operations officers but by the clergy and the academia. Although it involves different interest groups working together, the most crucial part of rehabilitation is the publicprivate
partnership between security and intelligence services and the clergy. It is of
paramount importance to build a lasting relationship between the government
holding the detainees and inmates and the clerics and scholars committed to
protecting their faith from misinterpretation and misrepresentation. Unless government and clergy work together to create the most crucial platform, the rehabilitation program will fall apart.

Fourth, as religious justification was used to bring about the concept of hate and
violence, counselling by the clergy should be an essential part of the program. In the West, where church and state are separate, there is a reluctance to use religious
counsellors; By neglecting this crucial dimension, other modes of rehabilitation are
unlikely to work. Government should cast aside their suspicions and find a channel
to better understand and work with the clerics. The clergy must be exposed to witness
what terrorism has done to individuals, and -decide for themselves the impact of
distortion on the terrorist, having strayed from the right Islamic teachings. When it
becomes apparent that a few minorities are casting a bad image on the religion, there
will be many clergy members volunteering to protect Islam. Then, working with
terrorists becomes the responsibility of clergy keen to uphold the dignity of the
religion itself. Members of the clergy must be careful not to project their own school or orientation as the right interpretation of Islam as that will lead to discord between the clergy. Clerics from the diverse schools and orientations should join hands and work together to fight a common threat.
Fqth, successful rehabilitation requires the continuous study of the evolving terrorist narrative and ideology as well as their perceived and real grievances and aspirations. It requires access to studies by other programs and institutions. Terrorists and their supporters thought that they could help Muslim brothers by doing Iihad in Somalia,Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Chechnya, Thailand, Indonesia, and the
Philippines. Clerics and scholars should develop an intellectual capacity to rebut this ideology and deliver an Islamic alternative to travelling and fighting in conflict zones.

The response should be a rebuttal to correct the deviation that says that Jihad
permits killing non-Muslims. Instead, an alternative can be proposed to support the
humanitarian work in Gaza and Kashrnir. ~nergy*hnd resources can be committed
to work peacefully to rebuild the lives and property of those who have suffered in
conflict zones.

Forum: Terrorist rehabilitation
Sixth, constant training and education of the professional and support staff at the
rehabilitation centre is essential. it is a guard or a sports instructor, no on
should be assigned to the rehabilitation centre without undergoing an orientation T
course. Even momentarily, if a guard on duty mistreats a beneficiary, the goodwill
built by others will be damaged. There is no standard textbook to rehabilitate a
terrorist. As terrorist rehabilitation is a new discipline, it is necessary to nurture a culture of research where a specialist team will constantly learn, develop, and refine the existing understanding and knowledge. Terrorist rehabilitation is neither an exact science nor a romance. Rehabilitation is an obligation, a science, and an art. As such a rehabilitation centre should never be run by a bureaucrat but should be run by a
dynamic leader. As beneficiaries differ from one another, it requires creative
leadership, not classical bureaucracy at work. It is essential to evaluate successes
and failures and maximise successes and minimise failures.
Seventh, trained, dedicated, and expert staffs are needed to classify andprofde the
detainee and inmates. Before selection as a beneficiary of the rehabilitation program,
it is necessary to assess if the terrorist is a high, medium, or low risk. It is also
necessary to profile his education, his family, and the depth of his operational
involvement and ideological commitment. Both his involvement and ideology are not
dependent on his level of education (low, medium, or high) but are dependant on the
degree of his exposure. Even the most educated are susceptible to the message of a
charismatic preacher. Like love, ideology makes terrorists and supporters blind. As
the degrees of indoctrination and commitment differ, government experts, together
with clerics and scholars, should work on a structured program and a tailored
syllabus for each of the beneficiaries Otherwise the message will not reach the
beneficiary and the investment will be wasted.

Eight, resources are needed to create an environment conducive for counselling. As
most detention and penitentiary facilities are over-crowded and their conditions
are exceptionally poor, the environment is not conducive for rehabilitation. As such,
governments should invest resources to construct new facilities or relocate the
beneficiaries to appropriate facilities. As opposed to mass and group counselling, oneto-
one counselling will involve a dialogue in a comfortable room. Seated on a sofa, the
preacher and the beneficiary will sip tea, eat dates, listen to each other, and discuss
matters of interest from God to the Qurbn and Islam to Muslims. If mass counselling
is being carried out, it is necessary to determine the target audience. It is necessary to
structure the message being delivered by looking at to whom we want to talk and about
what we want to talk. There should be continuous assessment of the beneficiary1
beneficiaries to assess how well they are responding to counselling.
Ninth, no rehabilitation program will achieve its desired impact unless the
government works to counter the extremism dormant in the community. While the
reverse of radicalisation in custody is rehabilitation, the reverse of radicalisation
outside detention is community engagement. Ideally, the blueprint for winning hearts
and minds should come from debriefing and deprogramming detainees. Terrorist
rehabilitation holds the key to inoculating communities against the contemporary
wave of extremism and terrorism. During rehabilitation, counsellors can elicit from
the beneficiary the content of counter-terrorist propaganda targeting and affecting
the community.
flmth, no one can guarantee that a person's mindset can be changed through
rehabilitation. To ensure he will not become a contaminant upon release, it is
necessary to support his gradual reintegration into society. Even before final release,the beneficiary should be placed in a halfway house where he can spend time with his
family and friends and remain committed to peace. To prevent rejuvenati~n of
extremist ideas and thoughts, the counsellors that helped in his transformation
should remain in contact with him. If the milieu is hostile, the revival of earlier beliefs
will lead him to violence again. A classic example is Said Ali al-Shihri, alias Abu
Sayyaf, a detainee released from Guantanamo in November 2007, who went through
the Saudi rehabilitation program. After he was approached and recruited by the
Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda, he travelled to Yemen where he was appointed deputy
leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen. He participated in the bombing of the US Embassy in
Sana in September 2008 that killed 16 people. Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi,
alias Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, another Saudi beneficiary who joined Al Qaeda in
Yemen, returned home after the clergy and his family spoke to him. As there is no
methodology to read the mind or to test if the beneficiary has been transformed after
treatment, there will always be lapses in judgement and assessment. High rates of
recidivism will adversely impact on the reputation of the program.
Eleventh, it has already been mentioned that the government and the ulema have to
work together for a successful rehabilitation program. However, other than the
government and the ulema, we also need to understand the importance of the
establishment of specialised centres of academic research in political violence and
terrorist research. As ideology is evolving, constant research and analysis is needed
to both produce and update rehabilitation manuals. The academic community
generates new ideas, looks at the antecedents, looks at success and failure, and scans,
analyses, and fills potential gaps. Academics look beyond the immediate and the
urgent, and provide strategic direction. For instance, by reviewing detainee debriefings,
academic specialists can formulate the counter-ideological arguments to rebut
the terrorist narrative aimed at de-radicalising the detainee as well as the community.
Building a partnership between government, the Muslim community, and academia
is at the heart of a successful rehabilitation program. Thus, academic research centres
will provide an avenue that focuses on problems of understanding global terrorism
and its occurrences, while at the same time providing databases and resources from
which both the government and the ulema can gain. At the same time, these centres
can become training facilities to nurture research-oriented scholars specialising in
terrorism both among the asatizah and the non-asatizah community.
Twelfth, formulate, implement, and manage a comprehensive security framework to
rehabilitate the detainees and inmates, This should involve both security and religious
screening of staff. Depending on the environment, it is necessary for professional and
support staff to be routinely and, if necessary, continuously screened. The beneficiary
should be closely monitored during counselling sessions and also when with family
and other visitors as well as fellow detainees and inmates. If there is any suspicion
that a beneficiary has not fully transformed and will return to violence, he should not
be released. It is necessary to understand that rehabilitation should never be the end
goal. Safety of the community is the ultimate objective. Early release should be
regarded as a breach of security. After release, the beneficiary should be monitored to
ensure that he does not return to violence. In a conflict zone, there are inherent -1
difficulties in monitoring a terrorist that has been released. By releasing a beneficiary
to a tribal elder and to the family, and by makurg him swear an oath on the Qur'an
and to a religious figure, mechanisms have been developed to enhance compliance.
A fully-transformed beneficiary is a strategic weapon in the fight against terrorism
Forum: Terrorist rehabilitation 77
and extremism. If successful, upon release, every beneficiary can play his role in
spreading the message of peace.

Challenges
There are multiple challenges in initiating, building, and sustaining national
programs.
First, the government should understand that religious justification was used to
bring about the terrorist mind. Furthermore, the government should understand that
Islam is never the driver, but that Islam has been misinterpreted and misrepresented
to legitimise violence. As such, the role of the ulema is at the very core of dismantling
the concept of hate and violence harboured by operational terrorists and extremist
supporters. This understanding should generate willingness by every government to
bring Islamic scholars and clerics-those learned and knowledgeable about Islamto
the front line.
There must be recognition that a theologian is as important as a counterterrorism
practitioner. Without Islamic scholars and clerics, we can fight operational
terrorism but not its precursor and generator, namely ideological extremism.
However, most governments treat terrorism as a mere law enforcement issue and
extremism as a non-issue. Church and state are separate in the West, the group of
nations with a global reach, staying power, and discipline to fight terrorism. As such,
there is reluctance in North America, Europe, and Australasia, to bring in Islamic
scholars and clerics to the forefront in matters of state. Government also has
difficulty in identifying the rightful scholars suitable to staff who can lead the
ideological fight. Without having negative thoughts about religious leaders,
government must understand the reality on the ground and start to work with them.
Second, through training and education Islamic scholars and clerics should develop
a full understanding of the ideology andpsychology of detainees and inmates. Scholars
and clerics know about Islam and Islamic law (sha'ria) but they do not know the
religious understanding of the terrorists. Even if the government identified scholars
and clerics with the right attitude, they need to be trained. The training should cover
two principal areas: first, terrorist ideologies, and the linkages between ideology and
operations; and second, the skills of psychological counselling, especially listening
patiently to the inmate or detainee. Islamic scholars and clerics must be equipped
with the ability to understand Islamic concepts as understood by the terrorists,
especially their misinterpretation and misrepresentation. They should examine the
writings and speeches of ideologues of hatred and violence, especially how Abu
Mohamed a1 Maqdisi and his followers perceive Islam and how Osama bin Laden's
followers understand Jihad as holy war.
Third, without a vision and without resources and a strategic direction, no program
that requires a long-term investment will succeed. For a rehabilitation program to be
successful, long-term commitment is a must. Rehabilitation comes with the notion
that a country must gain a greater understanding from others and provide more
resources. For instance, the Saudi Interior Ministry spent 1.7 billion riyals to
construct five modem headquarters and high-tech security prisons in Riyadh,
Jeddah and the eastern region, and Abha, Qassim in 2008. Prince Nayef bin Abdul
Aziz, Minister of the Interior, and his son, Prince Muhammed Bin Nayef, the
Assistant to the Interior Minister for Security Affairs oversaw the establishment of
nine centres for rehabilitation, which began in a centre near Riyadh. In addition to
the special facilities for housing families and meeting visitors, high-tech class rooms,
and libraries for reading and studying were built. A special committee oversaw
specialists in security, sports, Islamic law, social science, and psychology drawn from
government and university working together.
Classifying the terrorists
As different levels of extremism require different levels of response, government
should be able to differentiate between terrorist leaders, members or operatives, and
supporters and sympathisers. Just as there are circles of extremism, so there are
multiple target audiences. Counter-terrorism practitioners, Islamic scholars, and
academic specialists should work together to develop a program and a syllabus that
can be tailored to every category-from extremists that advocate and support to the
terrorists that kill, maim, and injure. As not all detainees are identical in their
understanding, it is necessary to divide them into leaders, operatives, and supporters.
For instance, many foot soldiers do not know about ideology. When a terrorist is
detained, he is assessed. As each of these categories requires different approaches, the
detainee is categorised into high, medium, and low risk.
High risk: Mostly spiritual and operational leaders. They are usually those that
form the core. They believe in the ideology and they do not want to move from it
despite many counselling sessions. Such people are very few. But they had contact
with and received direct inspiration from the terrorist leadership. Even though
Mullah Omar never completed his religious education and Osama bin Laden had no
formal religious education, many terrorists received instruction and guidance from
them. They regard a poorly-educated Afghan or a Saudi as more important than a
scholar or cleric from their own country. They believe that their beliefs are correct. It
is necessary to use the most prominent ulema to talk to them and allow them to
reflect and repent. When released, they are the most susceptible to return to violence.
Medium risk: Operatives and the experts that form the bulk of the membership.
They are ideologically and operationally active. They experience hatred and are ready
to commit violence. They will always look for justification and an interpretation that
suits their current mindset. They have usually served long in the organisation. They
know the ideology and accept it. They can be rehabilitated. In a few cases, it is
debated if there was genuine transformation or strategic calculation. There are cases
where they tried to mislead the counsellor by agreeing with the religious counsellor
with the intention of gaining an early release.
Low risk: Active and passive supporters. They are mostly foot soldiers, inactive
members, and those that are not involved in crimes. They do not know the ideology.
They joined thinking that their peers (relatives, colleagues, and friends) were fighting
for Islam. They completely believe that whatever they do is justified by religion.
Some provide money without realising that their contributions have been used to
purchase arms.
After a process of assessment, a suitable cleric or psychologist is assigned to
counsel the beneficiary. The beneficiary is continuously assessed; it is essential to
identify difficulties. Are these personality-relateQactors or dangerous ideology? Is
he still sympathetic to jihadist ideology? What is his worldview? The process of
rehabilitation is long and multifaceted.
Forum: Terrorist rehabilitation 79
Towards a global regime
The US, the nation leading the globa+fight against terrorism, was late in buying into
C"
the idea of rehabilitation. After 911 1, the US leadership did not see rehabilitation as a
solution. Although the US invested expertise and resources to build a rehabilitation
program in Iraq, as a government, the US did not espouse the concept of
rehabilitation. Building on the success of Task Force 134 in Iraq, there is some
interest on the part of the US to initiate a similar program by Task Force Guardian
in Bagram, Afghanistan. At this point in time, there are more countries that do not
believe in rehabilitation compared to the countries that embrace and promote it. A
number of other countries including Israel do not believe that terrorists can be
ideologically rehabilitated.
To make terrorist rehabilitation a global imperative, there must be agreement that
rehabilitation is a part of the global solution to solve the problem. The key to
establishing a global rehabilitation regime is to build a sufficient number of national
rehabilitation programs. A roadmap towards establishing national programs includes
establishing the following elements.
First, a common database. An information repository-a common pool of
resources-was launched by Singapore Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs
K. Shanmugam at the inauguration of the first International Conference on Terrorist
Rehabilitation on 24 February 2009. The p4peace portal has both a public and a
restricted interface. The password-verified restricted section for practitioners and
scholars is a dedicated space for counter-ideology content that focuses on terrorist
rehabilitation. This includes a database of articles, papers, and other documents for
use by practitioners and scholars, P4peace solicits contributions and writings by
delegates and their colleagues on counter ideology that focuses on rehabilitation.
Second, exchange of personnel. Governments worldwide lacked both human
expertise and material resources to start ad hoc rehabilitation initiatives and
structured rehabilitation programs. One of the most effective methods to build
capacity to rehabilitate terrorists is to exchange personnel. Exchange of personnel
will lead to information sharing on systems, modes, and best practices of terrorist
rehabilitation. Capacity building helps raise new, and improve existing, capabilities of
detainee and inmate rehabilitation. Countries with rehabilitation programs can either
attach or second their specialist staff to support countries keen to build rehabilitation
programs. Likewise, countries keen to build rehabilitation programs can leam from
countries with rehabilitation programs. Such exchanges will also enable countries
with ad hoc programs to build systematic programs and countries with no programs
to initiate programs.
Third, joint research, publication, education, and training. Joint research into the
terrorist mindset, psychology, use of religion, and other areas could pave the way for
collaboration in more challenging areas. For terrorist rehabilitation to be successful,
all the staff of the program should be oriented. As a specialist discipline, clerics,
scholars, psychologists, security and intelligence professionals, prison guards, and
others servicing the program should be trained. While courses on counselling skills
could range from seven months to one year, a course on counter extremism and
counter terrorism could range from one week to two years Specialist trainers or
traineks can be exchanged either to impart training or to receive training. When
conducting courses, countries with fully-fledged rehabilitation programs could invite
staff from countries keen to initiate rehabilitation programs to participate. As the
number of specialist trainers is limited, some courses could be jointly conducted. A
successful rehabilitation program requires the government, academia, and community
to work together. Without well-trained, dedicated, and motivated s&ff a
national program cannot succeed. Together with the Religious Rehabilitation Group
of Singapore, the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research
hosted the first International Course on Terrorist Rehabilitation in August 2009.
Four, transfer of expertise and resources. Without a vision and strategic direction,
no terrorist rehabilitation program can succeed. For a rehabilitation program to be
successful, a long-term commitment of intellectual and material resources is a must.
The program in Egypt died because the resources were diverted. In contrast,
governments from Uzbekistan, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia have allocated
significant resources. Although Malaysia, Indonesia, and Yemen have allocated
resources, they need to have a full-time, dedicated specialist staff focusing exclusively
on terrorist detainees and inmates. To make terrorist rehabilitation a global
imperative, wherever possible, countries need to share the expertise and resources
with countries that lack them. As of 2009, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, and the
Philippines expressed an interest in building programs. To build a global regime to
rehabilitate terrorists, governments with the expertise and resources need to pave the
way and create a path for other nations. Every successful program requires a longterm
investment of intellectual and other resources.
Five, sharing of experience. Every national rehabilitation program is country
specific. Saudi Arabia, for instance, supports the beneficiary to enter mainstream life,
and would therefore look for wives for the detainees and also buy them cars, homes,
give them jobs, and assist them in starting businesses. To change mindsets, there is
sustained family pressure to transform. Some have made use of the benefits and gone
back to violence. Instead of seeking to replicate national models, what would be
useful is to draw lessons and adapt them to specific country conditions. However,
there are many common areas for collaboration from research into key Islamic
concepts misinterpreted by the terrorists to the assessment progress or non-progress
of rehabilitation.
Six, an international advisory council. To sustain momentum, to ensure common
interest, and to create synergy, it is necessary to create an international advisory
council of practitioners and scholars. The council will determine membership, set
modalities, and provide strategic direction to the community of terrorist rehabilitation
practitioners and scholars. The council will plan and prepare for an annual
international conference on terrorist rehabilitation. This conference should continue
to serve as a platform to project to the world the message of rehabilitation.
To make terrorist rehabilitation a global imperative, the government needs to
move from a cooperative to a collaborative model. While preserving their unique
identities they must be willing to advance common interests. To have universal
acceptance of an idea such as terrorist rehabilitation, the understanding of the
community of nations, especially the West, is paramount. In moving towards a
United Nations convention making it mandatory for member countries to pass
legislation, the nations that constitute the UN needs to be convinced. This will
require a step-by-step approach of formally and informally educating governments
and intelligentsia, building a significant numbeC6f national rehabilitation programs
and initiatives, and eventually approaching the UN.

Forum: Terrorist rehabilitation Conclusion
After 911 1, Western-led kinetic, lethal, and punitive approaches have emerged as the
dominant strategies to fight terrorism. These tactical and operational responses have
produced mixed results. Although several important terrorists have been killed or
captured, the strategic threat has not diminished. Soon it will be ten years since the terrible attacks in New York and Washington DC. Unless governments share and
adopt non-kinetic, non-lethal measures to fight terrorism and extremism, the threat
will persist. Ideology driving violence, including terrorism, is growing. Unless the
ideology in the environment and inside the mind of the terrorist is dismantled, the
threat is likely to persist in the foreseeable future. Terrorist rehabilitation is a classic
example of using smart power. It is neither soft nor hard power. It is a combination
of not only integrating our laws to detain and hold but also using our goodwill and
judgment to correct the misled and the misguided. As no one is born an extremist or
a terrorist, it is necessary to reverse the global trend of radicalisation.
Rehabilitation is a holistic program. For rehabilitation to work, community
engagement is as important as the four modes of rehabilitation. The confluence of
these two domains must take place to bring about successful rehabilitation. The most
crucial partnership is that between government and community. As communities
produce extremists and terrorists, the participation of the community in the fight
against extremism is essential. Law enforcement, intelligence and the military can
help, but ultimately the community must defeat terrorism. Without community
participation, where the ulema and other secular leaders take the lead, no program
can succeed. There should be synergy where the government works with the
community elite to create an environment hostile to the terrorists and unfriendly to
extremists.
The Islamic world has yet to play the frontline role in both countering extremism
and its vicious by-product, terrorism. As religion has been misused and abused, the
Muslim world looks up to Saudi Arabia to debunk the terrorist ideology. The Royal
Family, religious scholars, and ulema in Saudi Arabia should give a bold mandate,
resources, and direction to the Muslim world. Other strong referral points should be
Egypt and Pakistan, where radical movements have emerged and festered. Unless the
ulema in Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Jordan, and
Algeria speak up, a segment of the Muslim community will continue to consider
Osama bin Laden, Dr Ayrnan a1 Zawahiri, Abu Bakar Bashir, and Abu Mohamed a1
Maqdisi as their ulema. More than ever before, Muslim nations face a grave
challenge. For success, a coordinated and collective effort is needed.
In most Muslim-minority governments, the greater challenge rests with government.
Muslims have little or no channels to the government. As counter terrorism is
within the realm of national security, to successfully target the conceptual terrorist
infrastructures the government has no option but to invite Muslim leaders, elders,
and the elite to work together. Governments must take the initiative and create
bridges and pathways: by opening doors, inviting participation, and making them
belong to the country, their identity will become a national Muslim identity. To foster
government-community partnerships towards building a viable program, the
government should take the lead. At the beginning, initiatives to engage Muslims
will only have the support of a handful of genuine Muslim leaders and institutions.
With success and time, more volunteers will join and greater participation will ensue.
The Singapore government's approach in building a close partnership between its
Muslim minority communities in countering terrorism is a good model to learn from
and adopt.

Acknowledgements
I am grateful to asatizahs Mohamed bin Ali, Mahfuh bin Haji Halimi, Mohamed Feisal bin Mohamed Hassan, and colleagues from the counter ideology unit in ICPWR for their
valuable guidance, and to Akanksha Mehta for editing this paper.

Notes on contributor
Rohan Gunaratna is Head of the International Centre for Political IGolence and Terrorism
Research, and Professor of Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies,
Singapore. He is the author of Inside A1 Qaeda: Global Network of Terror (Columbia
University Press). Professor Gunaratna chaired the first International Conference on Terrorist
Rehabilitation, Singapore, 24-26 February 2009.

About the Book

This book seeks to explore the new frontiers in counter-terrorism research, analyses and practice, focusing on the imperative to rehabilitate terrorists.

The post-9/11 world is in a very early stage of global rehabilitation both of terrorists and criminals. Nonetheless, some correctional rehabilitation programs have led convicted and suspected terrorists to express remorse, repent, and recant their violent ideologies and re-enter mainstream politics, religion and society. Although operational counter-terrorism initiatives have received both investment and attention, strategic counter-terrorism initiatives that ultimately end violence including terrorism but require patience and sustained efforts have been neglected by governments and received inadequate public coverage. This book is an early attempt to examine a few case studies both by practitioners and scholars. This book provides a better understanding of the process of deradicalization, and will be the first step towards exploring the development of tools necessary to examine and address challenges faced by practitioners.

This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, radical Islam, conflict resolution, war and conflict studies and IR/Security Studies.

Jolene Jerard's Bio

Jolene Jerard is an Associate Research Fellow and Manager of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), one of the largest counter terrorism research and training centres in the world. She is a specialist on terrorist and extremist groups in Asia.

She holds a Masters of Science in Strategic Studies with a Certificate in Terrorism Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and was a Visiting Research
Fellow at the Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies, Kabul. She has done work in several threat zones including Southern Thailand, Southern Philippines, Afghanistan, Bangladesh (Chittagong Hill Tracts), Iraq, Yemen and Libya. Her work at the centre focuses on terrorist and extremist groups. In that connection she interviewed leaders and members of threat groups including politico-religious and ethno-nationalist groups.

Rohan Gunaratna's Bio

Rohan Gunaratna is a specialist of the global threat environment, with expertise in threat groups in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. He is Head of Singapore’s International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), one of the largest specialist counter terrorism research and training centres in the world.

He is also Professor of Security Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and a Senior Fellow at the International Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, Oklahoma, USA. Gunaratna serves on the advisory board of International Centre for Counter- Terrorism in The Hague.

He is Member of the International Advisory Board of the International Institute for Counter Terrorism in Israel and a Member of the Steering Committee of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute. Gunaratna was a Senior Fellow both at Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy and at the United States Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point.

He holds a Masters in International Peace Studies from Notre Dame, US, and a Doctorate in International Relations from St. Andrews, Scotland. Invited to testify before the 9-11 Commission on the structure of Al Qaeda, Gunaratna led the specialist team that built the UN Database on Al Qaeda, Taliban and their Entities. He debriefed detainees in the U.S., Asia, Middle East including high value Al Qaeda detainees in Iraq. He chaired the inaugural International Conference on Terrorist Rehabilitation in February 2009.

Author and editor of 14 books including “Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror” (Columbia University Press), an international bestseller, Gunaratna is also
the lead author of Jane’s Counter Terrorism, a handbook for counter terrorism practitioners. His latest book with Chandler, former Chairman of the UN Monitoring Group into the Mobility, Weapons and Finance is "Countering Terrorism: Can We Meet the Threat of Global Violence?”

A litigation consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice, Gunaratna was United States expert in the Jose Padilla trial.