Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has brought conspiracy charges against a Yemeni man and a Sudanese man, both described as having close ties to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), making them the first Guantanamo Bay prisoners to face criminal charges, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said on Tuesday. The Defense Department said Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul of Yemen and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi of Sudan were charged with a single count each of conspiracy to commit war crimes and will be brought to trial before a military tribunal. Pentagon spokesman...

According to a Wednesday night post on the website Long War Journal by Thomas Joscelyn, a former detainee held at Guantanamo Bay named Ibrahim Qosi has rejoined the world of Islamic terrorism and ascended to a leadership post in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) following his release in July 2012. With this shocking story coming as the Obama administration still hopes to close the prison, the question going forward from a media standpoint is this: Will the media show any interest in this threat to national security and failure on the part of the adminstration? According to Joscelyn, Qoosi...

When Ibrahim al Qosi was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2012, a lawyer for the former Usama bin Laden aide said he looked forward to living a life of peace in his native Sudan. Three years later, Qosi has emerged as a prominent voice of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, appearing in a number of AQAP propaganda videos -- including a 50-minute lecture calling for the takeover of Saudi Arabia. ...

The former cook of al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden has had his Guantanamo prison sentence reduced to two years from 14, under a plea agreement that remains secret. The US military said Ibrahim al-Qosi's sentence had been reduced on Wednesday, contingent on his adherence to agreed upon terms. Those terms included an agreement not to engage in or materially support hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. Al-Qosi, who is about 50, acknowledged in his plea agreement that he knew al-Qaeda was a terrorist group when he ran one of the kitchens in bin Laden's Star of Jihad compound...