Around 25 former detainees from Guantanamo Bay camp returned to militancy after going through a rehabilitation program for Al-Qaeda members in Saudi Arabia, a security official said Saturday. The United States has sent back around 120 Saudis from the detention camp at the US naval base in Cuba. Saudi Arabia has put the returned prisoners along with other Al-Qaeda suspects through a rehabilitation program which includes religious re-education by clerics and financial help to start a new life. The scheme, which some 300 extremists have attended, is part of anti-terrorism efforts after Al-Qaeda staged attacks inside the Kingdom from 2003-06. Around 11 Saudis from Guantanamo have gone to Yemen, an operating base for Al-Qaeda, while others have been jailed again or killed after attending the program, said Abdulrahman Al-Hadlaq, Director General of the General Administration for Intellectual Security overseeing the rehabilitation. He pinpointed strong personal ties among former prisoners but also tough US tactics as the reason why some 20 percent of the returned Saudis relapsed into militancy compared to 9.5 percent of other participants in the rehabilitation program. “Those guys from other groups didn't suffer torture before, the non-Guantanamos (participants). Torturing is the most dangerous thing in radicalization. You have more extremist people if you have more torture,” Hadlaq told reporters in a rare briefing about Saudi anti-terrorism efforts. Despite the setback with Guantanamo prisoners, Saudi Arabia regards the rehabilitation scheme, which kicks in after militants have served a prison term, as a success. “There is no doubt that there is an effect,” Hadlaq said.
