PM Talks to Reformed Al-qaida Pair

Gordon Brown shook hands with former al-Qaida operatives yesterday when his tour of the Gulf took him to a center for deradicalisation in Saudi Arabia. Attending as a sign of solidarity with King Abdullah's efforts to modernize the kingdom's counter-terrorism strategy, Brown spoke to two men who had each spent six years at Guantánamo Bay.

The center is a part of Saudi Arabia's "soft" approach to rehabilitation. It has a gym and swimming pool, three meals a day, and fridges stocked with Mars bars, while there is a staff of 100 clerics versed in moderate Islam, and 50 social workers. Some 3,200 have gone through the program, with an 80-90% success rate, says the ministry of interior. Britain has studied deradicalisation programs overseas, including the one visited by the prime minister yesterday.

One man Brown met yesterday, Juma al-Dossary, 35, had been at the center six months. He was now married, with his wife expecting their first child, he told Brown, while the center had helped him secure a job for his release.