From Erick Stakelbeck in [1] FrontPage: "The Saudis have found the perfect man to mediate their terrorist amnesty program: a pro-jihad Sheikh with ties to Osama."

Last week, Saudi Arabia scored a victory for its recently-announced terrorist amnesty program, as Othman Hadi Al-Maqbul Al-Amri, an Al-Qaeda operative and one of the Kingdom’s most wanted men, gave himself up to Saudi authorities.

Although the surrender of Al-Amri, a veteran jihadist who had been on the run for two years, was certainly a positive development, the means by which it was accomplished were extremely dubious.

According to reports, Safar Al-Hawali, a radical Saudi cleric with links to Osama bin Laden and several of the 9/11 hijackers, played the role of “mediator” between Al-Amri and Saudi officials.

Over the past year, Al-Hawali has also negotiated the surrender of two other high-ranking, Saudi-based Al-Qaeda operatives, Ali Al-Faq’asi and Ali Abdel Rahman Saeed al-Faqaasi al-Ghamdi.

That Al-Hawali, a longtime Al-Qaeda supporter who spent five years in a Saudi prison for seeking to overthrow the Royal Family—and who continues to preach the destruction of the United States and Israel—has apparently become a trusted mediator for the Saudi government speaks volumes about the Kingdom’s “war” on terrorism.