'Wacky jihad therapy' didn't take for underwear bomb plotter

Said Ali al Shihri -- a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who now heads the terror group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- obviously didn't get to the bottom of his America-hating issues while undergoing the controversial rehab for jihadists.
nmates like Shihri are supposed to while away the days playing ping-pong, PlayStation and soccer in hopes that the peaceful environment will help them cope with their jihadist rages.

Bomb-makers and gunmen participate in art therapy to help them explore their feelings non-violently.

In between tasty picnic-style meals of rice and lamb and snacks of Snickers along with dips in the pool, participants practice Arabic calligraphy, produce dizzying Jackson Pollack rip-offs and imagine the aftermath of car bombings in crayon.

Some 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists have "graduated" from the program, including 108 former Guantanamo Bay detainees, the Washington Post reported.

"The Saudis talk about a success rate of 80 to 90 percent, but when you look at what those numbers mean in reality, it all falls down. There is no criteria for evaluation," John Horgan, a Department of Homeland Security consultant, told the New York Post.

In 2009, Horgan visited several of the Saudi terrorism rehab centers to report on the programs for Homeland Security.

"These guys are not being de-radicalized. They are being encouraged to disassociate from terrorism, but that doesn't mean their fundamental views changed," said Horgan, director of the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Penn State.

One observer referred to the program as "more like 'Hogan's Heroes' than 'Escape From Alcatraz.'"

No one can verify if the Saudi figures on recidivism are correct. And one thing the program does not cure the terrorists of is an unwavering hatred for the United States and the west.

No wonder they slide so easily back into terrorism.