After Guantanamo, 'Reintegration' for Saudis

Ramzi Kassem, a clinical instructor at Yale University's law school who represents two Saudis released to their home country, said the program is a "face-saving" measure adopted for the United States.

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"Even the United States has acknowledged that the rhetoric of these men being the worst-of-the-worst is a great exaggeration," Kassem said. "I don't really think the Saudis genuinely believe these men are the sort of hardened men they need to worry about. That's really all fiction."

U.S. officials have become more comfortable with the program over time, and say the reintegration program has enabled the reduction of Guantanamo's prison population to its lowest point since April 2002, with just more than 300 detainees in custody, down from a peak of 680. The nationalities most represented now are 90 Yemenis, 50 Afghans and 20 Saudis.

The Saudis have briefed the CIA, FBI and Defense Department on the program, and U.S. officials have visited the reintegration facility in Riyadh. Saudi officials said officials of several European nations have inquired about the program and want to determine whether it could work in their countries.

President Bush has said he wants to close the prison, though there has been much internal disagreement on what to do with the captives, some of whom are acknowledged terrorists. But "even as Congress and the administration can't reach agreement [on closing Guantanamo], the numbers are declining," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

For Dossari, the transfer home was literally a life-saving measure. He fell into a deep depression at the prison and attempted suicide several times. One try was interrupted by his attorney, who found him hanging from a makeshift noose in a bathroom.

"When we were in Guantanamo, we lived there like in an underground cemetery," Dossari said in a telephone interview last week. "It was like going from underground to paradise."

The flight to freedom for Dossari and other Saudis began when a Saudi jumbo jet -- with three guards per prisoner -- took them back to Riyadh. The detainees were treated like airline passengers and could walk the aisles, according to Dossari and Kassem.

After a reunion of nearly a week with their families, the former detainees begin a six-week program to "correct their ideas" about jihad and non-Muslims, a government effort to woo them away from al-Qaeda's radical theology in one-on-one discussions with religious scholars, Saudi officials said.

"Our government gave people a chance to correct their mistakes and start a new life, to understand Islam and make people understand government," Dossari said. "This is the only solution for terrorism."

After completing the course, former detainees begin the second phase at a halfway house, replete with a pool, volleyball courts, video games and table tennis. "It's like outpatient treatment. It's like a camp or resort," said a senior Saudi official familiar with the program, who agreed to be interviewed only if he was not identified.

They receive vocational training, religious classes and counseling to deal with depression or to help them adjust psychologically after lengthy captivities. They can spend an occasional night with their families; during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, they spend a week with relatives.