Saudis Give Passes, $150K To Detainees

From those defenders of the faith at the Associated Press:

Saudi authorities order about US $150,000 to ex-Guantanamo detainees

Oct. 6, 2007

Fifty-five Saudi Arabians who were released recently from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will receive about US $2,600 each to celebrate the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a Saudi newspaper reported Saturday.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz has granted the ex-Guantanamo prisoners temporarily release from detention centers in Saudi Arabia to spend time with their families during the holiday later this month, the Okaz newspaper reported.

The former Guantanamo detainees will return to police custody after the holiday in mid-October and will be referred to Saudi courts at end of this month for upcoming trials, the paper said.

US authorities transferred 16 Saudis from Guantanamo Bay back to Saudi Arabia in September, the latest transfer of prisoners from the US detention facility. Fewer than 40 Saudi detainees remain in detention.

Mind you, this is the same Saudi Arabia that has already released without trial many of the suspected (read undoubted) terrorists returned to them.

Bin Laden and his compadres often claim they begat their jihad against the US because we defended Saudi Arabia from Saddam in the First Gulf War.

Sometimes I wonder if we did the right thing.

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