| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Ex Gitmo inmate says reborn after Saudi rehab |
| 2009-04-28 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Abdulaziz al-Baddah had no idea what to expect after his release from the U.S. Guantanamo "war on terror" prison. He was picked up in Pakistan in December 2001 for working with the charity al-Wafa, which the United States alleges helped to fund al-Qaeda, and spent five years in the Guantanamo facility before being freed. "I wanted to come back to Saudi Arabia even if I had to face death," he said in an interview organized by the Saudi government's interior ministry. "It wouldn't be worse than what I faced in Guantanamo." Instead, one of the first things that happened was that he was reunited with his family from Mecca. He was interviewed, investigated and given a psychological evaluation--but not at all like in the U.S. jail. "It was more humanitarian," Baddah recalled. Then he was sent to Riyadh's new rehabilitation facility for militants, the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Centre for Care and Counselling. There, his hate for Americans dissipated and he lost his desire to go on jihad. "How would I benefit if I killed innocent people?" he asked, dutifully echoing one of the center's mantras. Positive brainwash One of the first "graduates" of the innovative Riyadh facility said the key lesson learned there is that his family and country are everything and that they will decide, not him alone, what constitutes a correct jihad, or holy war. "We tell them it's not your responsibility to decide," said Turki al-Otayan, the centre's main psychologist. "Before, I believed that my work for al-Wafa in Afghanistan could make me a martyr if I died, even if I was not fighting," Baddah said. "But now I think more about what I do. Humanitarian deeds go under the concept of jihad." Using a select group of clerics skilled in debating Islamic doctrine, the center engages former militants, those from Guantanamo and others arrested inside Saudi Arabia, in dialogue and class discussions over what jihad is and who has the right to call one. The answer, said center official Sheikh Ahmed Hamid Jelani, is that a jihad must be decided upon by senior Saudi clerics, agreed by the king and then permitted by the prospective militant's own parents. The program offers ample financial and social benefits, aiming to ensure that a graduate turns to the right people when he has questions on how a good Saudi Muslim should behave. In 2007 Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz gave $2,700 each to 55 Saudis who were formerly held at Guantanamo. Western application Last February Britain's High Court began looking into applying the Saudi rehabilitation program to give counseling to extremists. The new British program would be modeled after the munasaha (Arabic for "advice") program in which the Saudi government enrolls repentant terrorists and returnees from Guantanamo or militant camps outside the kingdom, the London-based newspaper al-Hayat reported on Feb. 23. The program would place an Islamic scholar or an imam in each prison to provide counseling to inmates with extremist ideologies According to High Court Judge Sir Christopher Pitchers, who headed a delegation that met with Saudi Minister of Justice Abdullah bin Mohammed Ibrahim Al Sheikh. "We will need the help of Saudi Arabia," Pitchers was quoted as saying. "However, it is the British government that should decide, not the court." He referred to the positive results the Saudi program has yielded, especially with respect to terrorist operations. "If a terrorist attack takes place in the U.K., we could benefit from the experience of Saudi Arabia in countering terrorism. We can also help them if we can. Mutual interest is the purpose of this visit to Riyadh," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 He's not actually "cured" until his boom belt detonates. |
| Posted by: Fred 2009-04-28 14:12 |
| #3 Let me guess, the second they gave him another AK-47 he felt better immediately. Future rehab consists of, 1. ammo clips, 2. ammo to load the clips, and at graduation ceremonies he's given his diploma, an RPG, then released as CURED. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-04-28 13:25 |
| #2 LOL |
| Posted by: .5MT 2009-04-28 11:38 |
| #1 So, like a recovered alcoholic, he could "fall off the camel" any time... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2009-04-28 10:13 |