Dialogue Not Warfare

I found out about Judge Hamoud al-Hitar via Mind Over Militants

The story is simple. In Yemen, a smart young judge named Hamoud al-Hitar challenged some captured, yet defiant Al Qaeda members to theological duel; a debate about the Koran in a winner-take-all contest aimed at convincing the prisoners they were misinterpreting Islam.

"If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence." The prisoners agreed to the challenge.

Judge Hitar was warned off the project by “western antiterrorism experts,” and he had some doubts of his own but in the “hope of bringing peace to his troubled homeland” the cleric went ahead with astonishing results.

The Yemen Times says The Dialogue Committee is known internationally

The Dialogue Committee aims at steering extremists away from violence and accepting tolerance and people living together in peace. A militant is released if persuaded after going through a number of sessions of dialogue.

Last month, the Yemeni government released 113 detainees allegedly being a part of the Al-Qaeda international terrorist network, including at least five who were accused of being involved in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.

Meanwhile, the US Senate has approved the appointment of the Torturer-in-Chief as Attorney-General. The hubris of the USA is amazing. All that technology in the military blinds them to simple techniques such as Judge Hamoud al-Hitar and his committee. The American (and Israeli) way creates martyrs while the Yemeni way creates citizens.