Haaretz: Lebanese Roumieh Prison Incubator To Be Next Baghdadi!

Local Editor

As the Lebanese government remains silent over the hubs of dangers threatening the homeland, the Zionist entity appears to be more aware than us of what is happening in Lebanon.

In a long investigative report, Haaretz "Israeli" daily shed light on the dangers of Lebanon's Roumieh Prison, home to 500-600 mostly foreign hardline extremists awaiting trial or already convicted:

This comes as the terrorist "ISIL" group and al-Nusra Front proposed a prisoner swap in exchange for Lebanese Army soldiers abducted for that express purpose. ISIL has even dubbed its demands for the inmates' release to a catchy tune on YouTube: "O brothers, the situation of prisoners in Roumieh has saddened me," the lead vocalist chants. The chorus follows: "The brothers are countless and they yearn to break Roumieh's doors."

Earlier this summer the Lebanese Interior Minister himself called Roumieh "a base for terrorism," after it was discovered that groups were planning a jailbreak to free their comrades-in-arms by driving a car bomb through the prison gates. He acknowledged that his and the government's writ was only partially implementable in the prison thanks to the prisoners' extensive privileges: They "have access to all means of communication and the Internet, and are in contact with whomever they want."

Roumieh prison is where the next Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the top cadre of ISIL may come from.
The Lebanese jail proves that security officials can lock up a dangerous person; but they can't lock up a dangerous mind. Inmates affiliated with the Nusra Front have reportedly organized terrorist operations from their computers and smart phones from inside. This summer, al-Nusra's emir [warlord] in Qalamoun, a flashpoint in the Syrian conflict, vowed that it would only be a "matter of time" before he would free the fighters from Roumieh.

This is no empty threat. The release of some prisoners may in fact be imminent, as the jailbreak plot and the proposed prisoner swap indicate. Al-Nusra and ISIL are currently holding a number of hostages, including members of the Lebanese Armed Forces [LAF] and the Internal Security Forces [ISF]. They were captured during violent clashes in Arsal, a Lebanese town near the Syrian border. Although Lebanese authorities are still downplaying the possibility of swapping prisoners for hostages, they may soon be forced to reconsider. ISIL has already beheaded a Lebanese soldier and slayed another one.

...The mounting pressure on the street is likely to force the Lebanese government to cave in to the demands of the militants.

Some candidates for release from Roumieh include individuals already implicated in terrorist attacks. For example, the Palestinian Naim Abbas was charged with belonging to the al-Qaeda-affiliated Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which claimed responsibility for bombings in Beirut in November 2013, including two simultaneous attacks on the Iranian embassy compound that killed at least 23 people, among them an Iranian diplomat.

And, perhaps most dangerous of all, there's Imad Jomaa, a former al-Nusra commander who recently pledged allegiance to al-Baghdadi. Jomaa's arrest in August 2014 sparked the violent clashes in Arsal in which the Lebanese soldiers were seized. Other candidates include militants incarcerated for participating in the 2007 clashes that pitted the LAF against Fatah al-Islam in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.

The truth is that whether or not they are prisoners or free men, the radicalization process has begun and promises to continue. "Street thugs" today, as the Pentagon once called ISIL's leader, are already poised to become the al-Baghdadis of tomorrow.

Source: Haaretz, Edited by website team