"It is a good, solid program," said retired Gen. Dell Dailey, the State Department counter-terrorism coordinator, in a statement prepared for United Press International.

The program, begun in secrecy three years ago, encourages those jailed for supporting al-Qaida or other Islamic terror groups to renounce their support for violence in the kingdom, repent their past and embrace an officially sanctioned version of Islam emphasizing the importance of obedience to the Saudi monarchy.

"It treats them as victims, not criminals," said Dailey.

The program is aimed at supporters or sympathizers rather that hardened terrorists, although anyone can apply to take part, according to Christopher Boucek, a Princeton University scholar who has observed counseling and instruction sessions, and interviewed participants as part of his research into the program.

After extended periods of religious instruction and psychological counseling, the men can qualify for release if they have completed their sentence and if family members will guarantee their good behavior; and for financial aid to help them reintegrate into society, Boucek said.

"Anyone can take part in the program, but not everyone will be released under it," he said. About 3,000 people have been or are going through the program, according to Saudi officials, and about 1,500 have been released so far.

Those who have graduated the program and completed their sentence go first to a halfway house called a rehabilitation center, for a set period of several weeks. "It's not like a correctional facility," said Boucek, adding the building had a soccer field and swimming pool, and that the men could receive visits from their families there.

He said that the program focused on explaining the conditions that had to be met under Islamic law for violent Jihad. "Most of them," he said of the participants, "were found to have a very low level of religious education" that made their indoctrination by extremists easier.

"It is a very nuanced argument they make," he said of the counselors, who emphasize the need for would-be Jihadis to get permission from their parents and the blessing of their rulers, and to be acting in accordance with a legitimate fatwa.

"It's very non-confrontational," he said of the religious instruction and dialogue. "They say, 'If this was a legitimate jihad, I would come with you to fight it, but look at the rules -- it's not legitimate."

But some observers remain skeptical, like veteran critic of the Saudi regime, Ali al-Ahmed of the Institute for Gulf Affairs.

"The people who are running this program �� are themselves extremists," he told a recent conference in Washington.

Boucek said that the presence on the Counseling Committee -- the multi-agency Saudi body that runs the program -- of former radical preachers adds to its legitimacy, and that those taking part in the program have to renounce a key element of al-Qaida ideology, the doctrine of Taqfir.

Taqfir, which brands as an apostate any Muslim who disagrees with the extremist interpretation of Islam, is key to the Jihadi worldview because it delegitimizes alternative forms of authority, and by branding the country's rulers as apostates, justifies violence against them.

Boucek said that the program "doesn't just target the individual. It is aimed at, and uses, the whole social network -- their family, their community, their wider clan associations," all of whom were involved in trying to keep participants out of trouble.

Families also get support while their jailed breadwinner is going through the program. "They look at (the families) from a 'What do you need?' point of view," said Boucek.

"They know that if they don't help the family out (the extremists) might."

He said "spreading the responsibility across many different shoulders" in this way helped explain the success of the program, which has a recidivism rate of less than 2 percent.

He said the origins of the program lay in real concerns the Saudis had about questions of legitimacy in the kingdom.

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