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After Guantanamo, 'Reintegration'
for Saudis
Josh White and Robin Wright
Washington
Post
Monday December 10, 2007
For five years, Jumah al-Dossari sat in a tiny cell
at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, watched day and night
by military captors who considered him one of the most dangerous
terrorist suspects on the planet.
In July, he was suddenly released to his native Saudi Arabia,
which held a very different view. Dossari was immediately reunited
with his family and treated like a VIP. He was given a monthly
stipend and a job, housed and fed, even promised help in finding
a wife. Today, he is a free man living on the Persian Gulf coast.
The treatment is part of a Saudi "reintegration program"
designed to help Dossari, 34, and other former Guantanamo prisoners
adjust to modern society and learn the meanings of Islam. About
40 of the more than 100 Guantanamo detainees from Saudi Arabia
who have been transferred to Riyadh since last year have been
released after participating in the program, and the rest are
scheduled to be let go in coming months.
(Article continues below)
The Defense Department considered more than 90 percent of the
transferred detainees to be terrorist threats to the United States
and its allies, but sent them home as part of an agreement that
Saudi Arabia would mitigate the threat, according to Cmdr. J.D.
Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.
"Our goal is to transfer out as many individuals from Guantanamo
Bay as we can," said Sandra L. Hodgkinson, deputy assistant
secretary of defense for detainee affairs. "The Saudis have
developed a reconciliation program to address the needs of their
population, and we strongly appreciate them finding a way to mitigate
the threats that these people pose. We believe this is a very,
very good program."
Critics are concerned that the arrangement will simply return
some extremists to the streets. Defense officials say about 30
of the nearly 480 detainees released from Guantanamo have again
taken up terrorist activities.
Full
article here.
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