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US to continue sending Guantanamo detainees to Saudi Arabia: Pentagon

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A spokesperson for the US Department of Defense (DOD) said Monday that the US will not change its policy on the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Saudi Arabia, despite reports that two former prisoners have joined al Qaeda in Yemen. A US counterterrorism official has confirmed that two of the nine alumni of the Saudi rehabilitation program who have been arrested were in fact former Guantanamo prisoners, but this revelation is unlikely to affect the new policy of transferring detainees to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation. The Saudi program, an effort to deprogram Islamic extremism, was designed with input from psychiatrists, sociologists, and Muslim clerics. The Saudi Minister of Interior reports that 218 men have completed the program, with only nine being arrested again. Last week, US President Barack Obama issued an executive order to close the Guantanamo prison in no more than one year. The policy shift has been hailed by human rights groups and international leaders, although this week's reports of Guantanamo recidivism may revive the debate.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 27, 2009 (boomark / email).