It is no wonder that US authorities were skeptical that religious debate could ?cure? extremism, or that terrorists might be rehabilitated. However, there are a number of examples worldwide of this happening. In the past decade, Saudi Arabia has seen a small handful of extremists do a 180 degree and turn liberal, each describing a St. Paul-on-the-road-to-Damascus moment when they suddenly realized the folly of their ways. Those handful of former extremists worked side by side with police to help bring down other terrorists. There is perhaps no more valuable intelligence asset than a captured or rehabilitated terrorist who is willing to cooperate with authorities. A number of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula terrorists have been brought down by flipped cell members, a couple of whom approached authorities themselves, without having to be captured. Saudis have had some luck offering a general amnesty to terrorists who turn themselves in and have gotten actionable intelligence from surrendered members in both 2003 and 2004.

In Iraq , anecdotal evidence from soldiers who capture militants or people harboring militants shows that some people choose to cooperate when they realize the Americans are not going to torture them like the previous national regime would have. For them, the relatively humane treatment afforded to prisoners of war captured by American troops is enough to convince them that they are fighting for the wrong side.