Care Rehabilitation Center
Encyclopedia
The Care Rehabilitation Center is a facility in Saudi Arabia
intended to re-integrate former jihadists into the mainstream of Saudi culture.
The center is located in a former resort complex, complete with swimming pools, and other recreational facilities, outside Riyadh
.
According to Peter Taylor, writing in the BBC
, the first nine Saudi captives in Guantanamo to be repatriated arrived before the program was set up.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
toured the facility on November 2, 2008, and spoke with several former Guantananmo captives.
Brown is reported to have spoken with Ghanim Abdul Rahman Al Harbi
and Juma al Dossari.
The Saudis had claimed a one hundred percent success rate, until two former Guantanamo captives released a threatening videos to the internet in January 2009.
Following the release of the video Saudi authorities took nine other former captives back into custody.
The names of the nine re-apprehended men have not been made public.
On February 4, 2009, the Associated Press
reported that Saudi authorities had listed eleven former Guantanamo captives on a list of 85 most wanted terrorist suspects.
Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, son of a deputy Prime Minister, and a deputy minister for security, had played a role in setting up the program.
In late August Abdullah Hassan Tali' al-Asiri, a suspected jihadist, who had been named on the February 2009 Saudi most wanted list, said he wanted to meet the Prince when he surrendered, turned out to be a suicide bomber.
Some security officials were injured, but the Prince escaped serious injury, and Al-Asiri was the only fatality.
Yusef Abdullah Saleh Al Rabiesh
, a former Guantanamo captive, who went through the rehabilitation program, went on record to express his gratitude to the Prince, and to warn his countrymen against being influenced by extremists.
Program discussions focus on jihad (military and personal struggles), takfir (unbelievers), bay’at (allegiance) and walaah (loyalty to the Muslim community). The program, for example, focuses on how individuals can only wage jihad with government approval — specifically the head or ruler of state — and not through a fatwa issued by an ideologue aligned with a terrorist organization.
Counseling and evaluation follows religious instruction. Determining whether former extremists are suitable for release is the responsibility of the Saudi Ministry of Interior and its security forces personnel. A condition of release is placing former detainees under a monitoring system similar to parole or probation. Many released detainees remain under constant surveillance.
In June 2010, the Saudi Ministry of Interior determined that 25 of the 120 former Guantanamo Bay detainees who graduated the rehabilitation program returned to terrorist activities. Eleven of the 25 joined Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen. However, the overall recidivism rate of more than 3,000 program graduates as of 2010 remains about 10 percent.
Al-Qaeda had previously announced plans to target a key component of the program, which allows fugitive extremists to voluntarily surrender and become eligible for the program. Al-Qaeda’s announcement was intended to challenge Saudi Arabia’s official interpretation of Islam by attempting to draw wavering extremists who desire to give up terrorism back into the embrace of Al-Qaeda.
Taylor called this cohort "batch 10
", and reported that many of these captives were not rehabilitated.
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
intended to re-integrate former jihadists into the mainstream of Saudi culture.
The center is located in a former resort complex, complete with swimming pools, and other recreational facilities, outside Riyadh
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
.
According to Peter Taylor, writing in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, the first nine Saudi captives in Guantanamo to be repatriated arrived before the program was set up.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
toured the facility on November 2, 2008, and spoke with several former Guantananmo captives.
Brown is reported to have spoken with Ghanim Abdul Rahman Al Harbi
Ghanim Abdul Rahman Al Harbi
Ghanim Abdul Rahman Al Harbi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.The Department of Defense reports that Al Harbi was born on March 13, 1974, in Khobar, Saudi Arabia...
and Juma al Dossari.
The Saudis had claimed a one hundred percent success rate, until two former Guantanamo captives released a threatening videos to the internet in January 2009.
Following the release of the video Saudi authorities took nine other former captives back into custody.
The names of the nine re-apprehended men have not been made public.
On February 4, 2009, the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported that Saudi authorities had listed eleven former Guantanamo captives on a list of 85 most wanted terrorist suspects.
Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, son of a deputy Prime Minister, and a deputy minister for security, had played a role in setting up the program.
In late August Abdullah Hassan Tali' al-Asiri, a suspected jihadist, who had been named on the February 2009 Saudi most wanted list, said he wanted to meet the Prince when he surrendered, turned out to be a suicide bomber.
Some security officials were injured, but the Prince escaped serious injury, and Al-Asiri was the only fatality.
Yusef Abdullah Saleh Al Rabiesh
Yusef Abdullah Saleh Al Rabiesh
-First annual Administrative Review Board:A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared forYusef Abdullah Saleh Al Rabiesh's first annualAdministrative Review Board,on10 March 2005.The following primary factors favor continued detention...
, a former Guantanamo captive, who went through the rehabilitation program, went on record to express his gratitude to the Prince, and to warn his countrymen against being influenced by extremists.
Program goals
The core of the program is to return extremists to the “true Islam.” The program employs intensive religious instruction by deconstructing extremists’ interpretation of the Holy Qur'an. Following rigorous debate, Islamic scholars and clerics, many employed by Saudi Arabia’s universities, establish a foundation for different interpretation that brings extremists back in line to the true meaning of Islam. Saudi Arabia’s rehabilitation program is modeled after a similar program implemented in Egypt in the 1990s. Indonesia and Singapore, in turn, established rehabilitation programs based on the Saudi Arabian model.Program discussions focus on jihad (military and personal struggles), takfir (unbelievers), bay’at (allegiance) and walaah (loyalty to the Muslim community). The program, for example, focuses on how individuals can only wage jihad with government approval — specifically the head or ruler of state — and not through a fatwa issued by an ideologue aligned with a terrorist organization.
Counseling and evaluation follows religious instruction. Determining whether former extremists are suitable for release is the responsibility of the Saudi Ministry of Interior and its security forces personnel. A condition of release is placing former detainees under a monitoring system similar to parole or probation. Many released detainees remain under constant surveillance.
In June 2010, the Saudi Ministry of Interior determined that 25 of the 120 former Guantanamo Bay detainees who graduated the rehabilitation program returned to terrorist activities. Eleven of the 25 joined Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen. However, the overall recidivism rate of more than 3,000 program graduates as of 2010 remains about 10 percent.
Al-Qaeda had previously announced plans to target a key component of the program, which allows fugitive extremists to voluntarily surrender and become eligible for the program. Al-Qaeda’s announcement was intended to challenge Saudi Arabia’s official interpretation of Islam by attempting to draw wavering extremists who desire to give up terrorism back into the embrace of Al-Qaeda.
Success of the program
In its initial years the program was described as successful. Commentators suggested other countries, like Yemen, should run similar rehabilitation programs. One of the first graduates of the program, Khalid Al Hubayshi, continues to be cited as the model of a successful graduate of the program.Batch 10
According to Peter Taylor the BBC found that the cohort of Saudis repatriated in November 2007 problematic.Taylor called this cohort "batch 10
Batch 10
Batch 10 is a name journalist have given to the tenth batch of former Saudi captives to be repatriated to Saudi Arabian custody.Five of the fourteen captives in this group repatriated to Saudi captivity on November 9, 2007 were among the eleven former Guantanamo captives to be listed on the 85 men...
", and reported that many of these captives were not rehabilitated.