'Living suicide bomb' rejoins al-Qaida after Saudi deprogramming

[Valin]

The Guardian:

Ahmed al-Shayea's return to arms along with other jihadis raises questions over Saudi Arabia's de-radicalisation initiative

Peter Beaumont

Saturday 18 January 2014

 

Ahmed al-Shayea was known as the "living suicide bomb" – the young Saudi driver of a fuel tanker bomb in Iraq who survived to renounce violence and warn his countrymen of the dangers of jihad.

 

In the process he became Saudi Arabia's poster boy for a high-profile jihadi de-programming initiative whose secondary purpose is to discourage Saudis from joining al-Qaida.

 

With his burned face and mangled hands, Shayea was presented as a vivid warning to young Saudis about the perils of jihad and the untrustworthiness of al-Qaida, which he claimed had tricked him into driving the tanker bomb, which killed 12 people in 2004.

 

That was until November..........(Snip)