In January 2009, the President of

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

Ali Abdullah Saleh Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar (, ''ʿAlī ʿAbdullāh Ṣāliḥ al-Aḥmar;'' 21 March 1947There is a dispute as to Saleh's date of birth, some saying that it was on 21 March 1942. See: However, by Saleh's own confession, he was born in 1947 al ...

announced plans to start a new Yemeni jihadist rehabilitation program similar to the Saudi jihadist rehabilitation program. According to

Michelle Shephard Michelle Shephard (born 1972) is an independent investigative reporter (previously with the ''Toronto Star'' newspaper), author and filmmaker. She has been awarded the Michener Award for public service journalism and won Canada's top newspaper pri ...

, reporting for the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' in September 2009, Yemen had been an innovator in jihadist rehabilitation, with an effort led by the judge

Hamoud al-Hitar Hamoud Al-Hitar (b. circa 1955) is a Yemeni judge. He served as minister of Ministry of Endowments and Guidance, Minister of Religious Endowments and Guidance from 2008 to 2011. He is notable for leading a Yemeni jihadist rehabilitation program, ...

, called the "Committee for Religious Dialogue". Shephard wrote in September 2009 that she found no sign of the new program during a recent visit. Shephard wrote that the earlier jihadist rehabilitation program had been shut down in 2005 due to a lack of funds and lack of interest. She interviewed al-Hitar and

Nasser al-Bahri Nasser al-Bahri (1972 – 26 December 2015), also known by his ''Kunya (Arabic), kunya'' or ''nom de guerre'' as Abu Jandal – "father of death" or "the killer", was a member of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2000. According to his memoir ...

, one of the program's more well-known graduates. Al-Bahri and his brother-in-law,

Salim Ahmed Hamdan Salim Ahmed Hamdan () (born February 25, 1968) is a Yemeni man, captured during the invasion of Afghanistan, declared by the United States government to be an illegal enemy combatant and held as a detainee at Guantanamo Bay from 2002 to November ...

, long held as detainees in the

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

, were featured in the film documentary ''

The Oath The Oath may refer to: Books * ''The Oath'' (Wiesel novel), a 1973 novel by Elie Wiesel * ''The Oath'' (Peretti novel), a 1995 novel by Frank E. Peretti * '' The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court'', a 2012 book by Jeffrey Toobin ...

'' (2010) by the American filmmaker

Laura Poitras Laura Poitras (; born February 2, 1964) is an American director and producer of documentary films. Poitras has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ''Citizenfour'', about Edwa ...

. Al-Bahri said that his meetings with al-Hitar were "tainted" because they took place in prison, and were under police surveillance. Shephard wrote that, using the term used by those who study rehabilitation of jihadists, al-Bahri was not "deradicalized" but rather "disengaged". The '' Economist magazine'' reported that

Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’s ...

, a distant off-shore Yemeni island, was being considered as a possible site for the rehabilitation program.

References

{{Reflist Islamic organizations based in Yemen Jihadist rehabilitation