UPDATE: The story is getting a bit more substance. CNN reports, using an ‘unnamed security official’, that Al-Shihri fled a Saudi rehab program last year. In an unsourced report, The New York Times say Al-Shihri had ‘passed through’ a program.
The far-left of American politics is viewing this story as a) an example of ‘failed Bush policies’ and b) fearmongering by the former Administration, planted in the media in order to scotch the new Administration’s plans to close Guantanamo. Bloggers on the right are, indeed, seeing this as an unfortunate consequence of pressure by the left to close Guantanamo.
The Associated Press carries an unverified report that a Saudi, Said Ali al-Shihri, who was detained at Guantanamo and repatriated to Saudi Arabia last year, is claimed to be the #2 leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. If this is so, then it means that he would have been processed through one of the Saudi government’s rehabilitation programs upon his release from Guantanamo prior to being released into the general public. If this is so, it would mark the first recorded failure of that program.
The story is based on an Internet posting, so its veracity is yet to be determined.
Report: Ex-Gitmo detainee joins al-Qaida in Yemen
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — An Internet posting purportedly by al-Qaida in Yemen says the group’s No. 2 is a Saudi national who is a former Guantanamo detainee.
The Yemeni group – known as “al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula” – posted the statement this week on a militant Web site that regularly carries al-Qaida messages.
It says the man returned to his home in Saudi Arabia after his release from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba about a year ago and from there went to Yemen to join the terror group.
The Internet statement identified the man as Said Ali al-Shihri and says his prisoner number at Guantanamo was 372.
The posting could not immediately be verified, and Yemen and Saudi Arabian authorities would not immediately comment on it.
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January:23:2009 - 11:34
Although I want to have compassion for all, do these people deserve rehabilitation? Do violent people deserve a second chance to harm more people? I guess the answer to this question is yes, obviously. If I gave someone a gun in a metaphorical sense and said wield it as you may, and they did. How could I then punish them? If we added together the jail time of Saudi reformists who spent in jail for speaking “SPEAKING” up it might be equivalent to what these violent provokists and actors spent behind bars or maybe not.
You see as part of what makes people go mad is that any attempt to exert personal power and to actually embark on change (changing the status quo) will be met with staunch opposition unless of course your intent is to destroy anything other than what positional interests are of in which a person’s personal “steak” is held to the highest esteem.
I could go for sirlon.
January:25:2009 - 19:00
I don’t know about all of you, but when I am mad nothing is better than rubbing a crayon hard off a crisp white sheet of paper.
For more information, please follow this link
Art Therapy Helps Reform Terrorist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QllcjRnyozQ
January:26:2009 - 06:26
Sparky,
do you mean you’re a large consumer of crayon and white sheets of paper ?
January:26:2009 - 09:27
Hi Michel that is cute
While some may get their anger out in artistic expression, I get it out in the crafting of my words…we always need an audience though whether for the art or words…hehehehe
Actually believe it or not I did have an anger problem a while back, but I bought a book on anger management and BY MYSELF used it to get over the anger. The book used an approach called “cognitive behavioral therapy” and I believe such approach would be useful in reforming people.
I feel very bad for the people in that video…they are confused and angry and they are given crayons. Ya Allah! They are given gifts so in effect they are rewarded for their behavior. Ya Allah!