Here's an interesting wrinkle:
The source of a tip that alerted security agencies around the world to the package-bomb plot late last week was Jabir al-Fayfi, a Saudi national and former Guantánamo Bay inmate, a Yemeni security official said Monday.
The tip-off has been heralded as a major intelligence coup. But the detainee's shifting loyalties to al Qaeda over the years also underscore the challenges in battling the group.
Mr. al-Fayfi was released from Guantanamo in late 2006 into Saudi custody and entered a Saudi re-education program designed to sway Islamic militants away from violence. He appears to have joined up with al Qaeda in Yemen in 2008.
His defection after the re-education program in Saudi Arabia, as well as that of other key Saudis now leading the ranks of the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda, raised questions about the effectiveness of the Saudi method in dealing with their homegrown jihadis. But now, Mr. al-Fayfi's alleged role in uncovering the package-bomb plot could boost international confidence in the Saudi tactics. Instead of detention facilities like Guantánamo, Saudis employ religious scholars to persuade militants to forsake violence and offer generous social and job benefits to entice the men to settle into routine lives.
I'm not sure that this says anything about the rehabilitative powers of either the Saudi program or Gitmo itself, but chances are there's going to be a lot more to learn from this guy, not just intelligence-wise but about the process of deradicalization.
