Via LWJ:
The Defense Department announced the transfer of two Guantanamo detainees to Saudi Arabia today. Saad Muhammad Husayn Qahtani and Hamood Abdulla Hamood were both previously approved for transfer from the detention facility by President Obama’s Guantanamo Review Task Force.
The task force made its final recommendations in January 2010. The body concluded that both men could be transferred “subject to appropriate security measures.”
Previously, Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) recommended that both detainees be retained in US custody. JTF-GTMO’s threat assessments for both detainees, which were authored before the task force was commissioned in January 2009, have been leaked online.
JTF-GTMO classified both men as “high” risks who are “likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies.”
Military officials determined that both men had served in Osama bin Laden’s 55th Arab Brigade, which “served as [bin Laden’s] primary battle formation supporting Taliban objectives, with [bin Laden] participating closely in the command and control of the brigade.”
What awaits them in Saudi Arabia:
(AFP 4/21/2013) – Saudi Arabia is hoping to wean jailed al-Qaeda terrorists off religious extremism with counseling, spa treatments and plenty of exercise at a luxury rehabilitation center in Riyadh.
In between sessions with counselors and talks on religion, prisoners will be able to relax in the center’s facilities which include an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a sauna, gym and a television hall.
The new complex is the work of the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Counseling and Care, a body set up seven years ago to rehabilitate extremists jailed during a Saudi crackdown on the local branch of al-Qaeda.
“Just under 3,000 (Islamist prisoners) will have to go through one of these centers before they can be released,” interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki told AFP during a tour of the new center.
Another center has already opened in the western port city of Jeddah, and three more are planned for the north, east and south of the desert kingdom.