A cushy Saudi Arabian "rehab" center where terrorists are encouraged to express themselves through crayon drawings, water sports and video games is under scrutiny after one of its graduates re-emerged as a leader in the al Qaeda branch claiming responsibility for trying to blow up an airliner on Christmas. Said Ali al Shihri -- a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who now heads the terror group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- obviously didn't get to the bottom of his America-hating issues while undergoing the controversial rehab for jihadists. Inmates like Shihri are supposed to while away the days playing ping-pong, PlayStation and soccer in hopes that the peaceful environment will help them cope with their jihadist rages.
Bomb-makers and gunmen participate in art therapy to help them explore their feelings non-violently. In between tasty picnic-style meals of rice and lamb and snacks of Snickers along with dips in the pool, participants practice Arabic calligraphy, produce dizzying Jackson Pollack rip-offs and imagine the aftermath of car bombings in crayon.
Some 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists have "graduated" from the program, including 108 former Guantanamo Bay detainees, the Washington Post reported. "The Saudis talk about a success rate of 80 to 90 percent, but when you look at what those numbers mean in reality, it all falls down. There is no criteria for evaluation," John Horgan, a Department of Homeland Security consultant, told the New York Post.
In 2009, Horgan visited several of the Saudi terrorism rehab centers to report on the programs for Homeland Security. "These guys are not being de-radicalized. They are being encouraged to disassociate from terrorism, but that doesn't mean their fundamental views changed," said Horgan, director of the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Penn State.
The Saudis launched the programs after the kingdom was rocked by a series of al Qaeda-inspired attacks in 2003 and 2004. But despite the Saudi government's best efforts, which also include setting up graduates with jobs, introductions to potential wives and new cars, many of the terrorists don't seem to be getting the peace message.
"Several 'returnees' from Guantanamo Bay continue to espouse a virulent hatred of the United States and Western society in general," Horgan wrote in a September report. That includes Shihri, who has been busy ignoring the peaceful precepts he was taught in terror rehab and has resumed his hardcore jihadist ways.
Shihri is a top member of the al Qaeda branch in Yemen which claims to have masterminded the failed plot to blow up Flight 253 to Detroit on Christmas Day. He also is suspected of coordinating the 2008 bombing of the US embassy in Yemen, ABC reported. Another former Gitmo detainee, Muhammad al Awfi, who went back to al Qaeda after his release, has ridiculed the Saudi efforts to rehabilitate jihadists as a plan to "drive us away from Islam."
Shihri -- who was released from Guantanamo Bay by President George W. Bush in 2007 -- spent six to ten weeks at the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Care and Counseling, ABC News reported. "There are guards and gates and barbed wire but it's not quite prison," Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has visited the center, told ABC. "It's a communal living environment that's more like 'Hogan's Heroes' than 'Escape From Alcatraz.' "
A team of shrinks works with the inmates in managing their emotions, and they are given lessons in Islam from imams, who warn them that jihad is only acceptable when sanctioned by the state. Toward the end of their stint, some inmates are allowed to make unescorted visits to family members.
"Some American officials say it's all about crayons and art therapy, but the things that don't translate are the intense emotional and intellectual strides that are made," Boucek told ABC. "They make intense bonds with the sheiks and doctors they work with. The majority is a religious discussion giving them religious evidence to the contrary of why they think their beliefs are based on Islam."