"Rehabilitated" Islamists Arrested in Saudi Arabia

(Saudi Arabia) It appears that the Saudi Terrorist Rehab Program is not entirely effective.

Nine Saudi Islamic militants, including former Guantanamo inmates, have been rearrested in the Kingdom despite completing a controversial rehabilitation programme.

The arrests follow the embarrassing revelation last week that another Saudi Guantanamo Bay detainee who was released to the authorities in 2007 has emerged as the deputy leader of al-Qaeda’s Yemeni branch of the terrorist organisation.

Both incidents are a serious setback for the experimental regime in which Saudi terror suspects are "weaned off" Islamic militancy at the so-called "Betty Ford clinic" for jihadists.

Nevertheless, one Saudi source says that the program is still an overall success.

It has weaned 218 people off terrorism, off twisted and un-Islamic ideas. It has brought them back into the mainstream. There are 218 terror suspects who are no longer dangerous to society. That must not be forgotten. It would, therefore, be wrong to rush and make changes because rehabilitation did not work with only two former [Gitmo] detainees.

Not everyone shares the optimism.