Rehab for Terrorists

President Obama said today that he won’t be rushed into sending more troops to Afghanistan. Last night he told a crowd in Miami that he is serious about shutting down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The question of what to do about the Taliban insurgency and the remaining Gitmo detainees has yet to be answered. America might consider taking a page from Saudi Arabia’s treatment of extremist militants. The home country of Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers is not known for its leniency, which makes the Saudi government’s terrorist rehabilitation program even more extraordinary.

The rehab program includes religious re-education, art therapy, buying cars for former extremists, and even helping them find wives. Saudi officials claim they’ve "reformed" more than a thousand terrorists, and that the program has been 95 percent effective. But in January, the Saudi kingdom disclosed that eleven graduates of the program were rearrested for joining militant groups.

Max Fisher at The Atlantic has been tracking the Saudi program, and joins us with more.

The Atlantic: Applying Saudi Counterterrorism To The Afghanistan War

The Atlantic Wire: Seeking Fissures Between Taliban and Al Qaeda

Slate: Jihadis Anonymous

The Christian Science Monitor: How effective are terrorist rehabilitation programs?

(Photo by Mushroom and Rooster via Flickr/Creative Commons)