The Justice Department's interpretations of rights that jihadist inmates have in prison

Debra Burlingame, the sister of the pilot who died on Flight 77, the one that was flown into the Pentagon, has a chilling column today. Obama's Justice Department has given in to a hunger strike by Richard Reid, the shoe bomber who tried to blow up a plane over the Atlantic, to grant him more rights in prison to meet with other Muslims in prayer. Burlingame reminds us that Reid is in a supermax prison along with a Who's Who of Al Qaeda members who regard themselves as obligated to continue their jihad against America.

Reid’s own SAMs [Special Administrative Measures] on correspondence had been tightened in 2006 after the shocking discovery that three of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers at ADX, not subject to security directives, had sent 90 letters to overseas terrorist networks, including those associated with the Madrid train bombing. The letters, exhorting jihad and praising Osama bin Laden as “my hero of this generation,” were printed in Arabic newspapers and brandished like trophies to recruit new members.

Just the sort of guy you want to be able to meet with other prisoners to speak in a language that the guards don't understand.

But what is really chilling is what the Obama administration's move portends for other terrorist inmates in supermax prisons. And remember, this is where President Obama would like more of the Guantanamo prisoners to end up. And human rights organizations are happy to jump in and help prisoners like Reid sue for their rights, including the right to religion as interpreted to gather with other Muslim inmates.

In January, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado issued a statement saying that conditions at supermax are “simply another form of torture” worse than Gitmo which “make a mockery of ‘innocent until proven guilty.’” Last month, the ACLU filed a civil lawsuit mirroring Reid’s religious rights claim on behalf of two terrorism inmates held at the Communications Management Unit inside a medium security prison in Terre Haute, Ind.

One of those inmates is Enaam Arnaout, a Syrian-born U.S. citizen serving a 10-year sentence for diverting Muslim charity money to militant Islamic groups in Bosnia and Chechnya. The other, Randall Royer, is serving 20 years for his role recruiting young Muslims in the “Virginia Jihad Network,” a group that used paintball games in 2000-2001 to train for holy war.

Mr. Obama has repeatedly suggested that the security challenge of bringing more than 100 trained and dangerous terrorists onto U.S. soil can be solved by simply installing them in an impenetrable fortress. This view is either disingenuous or naïve. The militant Islamists at Guantanamo too dangerous to release believe that their resistance behind the wire is a continuation of holy war. There is every reason to believe they will continue their jihad once they have been transported to U.S. soil where certain federal judges have signaled a willingness to confer upon them even more rights.

Richard Reid has demonstrated the path that such inmates can take. Sue under the freedom of religion to meet with other Muslims and then go on a hunger strike to gain those rights. If they gave up with a guy caught in the act of trying to kill the 197 people aboard his plane, which other convicted jihadists would be able to expand their rights in supermax prisons? Those security measures had been in effect since Reid's conviction in 2002, but now Eric Holder has decided that they can be relaxed even though there is no evidence that Reid has altered his dedication to killing Americans. Chilling, indeed.