Ibrahim al Qosi

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi
Born	(1960-07-03) July 3, 1960 Khartoum, Sudan
Detained at	Guantanamo
Alternate name	Abu Khubaib al-Sudani
ISN	54
Charge(s)	One of the ten captives to originally face charges before a military commission.
Status	Guilty plea on July 7, 2010.

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi (إبراهيم أحمد محمود القوصي) (born July 3, 1960) is a Sudanese citizen and alleged paymaster for al-Qaida.^[1] He was captured in December, 2001 in Afghanistan. Qosi was held since January 2002 in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[2] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 54.

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was held at Guantanamo for approximately ten years and six months; he was charged with low-level support of al-Qaeda.^[3] After pleading guilty in a plea bargain in 2010, in the first trial under the military commissions,^[4] and serving a short sentence, Qosi was transferred to Sudan in July 2012. He was to be held in custody and participate in Sudan's re-integration program for former detainees before being allowed to return to his hometown.

Background

Ibrahim Al Qosi, charge sheet, Guantanamo Military Commission.

Ibrahim Al Qosi was born in 1960 in Khartoum, Sudan. He has a brother named Abdullah. He is married to one of Abdullah Tabarak's daughters, and has two daughters.^[5][6]

Qosi was the first captive to face charges before a Guantanamo military commission.^[6] He was not accused of being a member of al Qaeda`s leadership, only of simple support tasks, like cooking. After pleading guilty in a plea bargain, he was sentenced in July 2010. He was transferred to Sudan in July 2012 after completing a shortened sentence, and was to participate in Sudan's re-integration program for former detainees.

Combatant Status Review

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal, listing the allegations that led to his detainment. His memo accused him of the following:^[7]

a. The detainee is a member of al Qaeda:

1. The detainee admitted he traveled from Sudan to Afghanistan to train for and fight the Jihad in 1990.
2. The detainee attended Al Farouq training camp and trained on the following weapons: Makarov 9mm pistol, Seminov, AK-47, AKSU-74, RPG-7, RGD-5, Offensive Hand Grenade, F-1 Antipersonnel Grenade, and M-43 120mm Mortar.
3. The detainee was deployed to the Mujahadin front line in Afghanistan in 1990.
4. The detainee was asked to work as an accountant for Usama Bin Ladin in Khartoum, Sudan in December 1991.
5. The detainee met Usama Bin Ladin at a guesthouse in Khartoum, Sudan and worked for Bin Ladin's Taba Commercial Company in 1992, as the treasurer-accountant.
6. The detainee wrote to Usama Bin Ladin requesting to go to Chechnya to fight the Jihad in 1995, where he used the M-43 120mm Mortar.
7. The detainee joined Usama Bin Laden in the Tora Bora Mountains in September or October 1996.
8. The detainee resided at the Star of Jihad compound with Usama Bin Ladin from 1996 through part of 1997, where he was in charge of the kitchen.

b. The detainee participated in military operations against the coalition.

1. The detainee traveled back and forth between the front lines of Kabul and Kandahar, Afghanistan around the time of the 1998 U.S. Embassay bombings, and 2001.
2. The detainee fought the Jihad in Kabul because Massoud;s forces threatened the city.
3. The detainee fled to Tora Bora after September 2001.
4. The detainee fled Tora Bora with his Kalishnikov rifle for the Pakistani Border, where he was captured by Pakistani tribes and turned over to Pakistani officials.

Habeas petition

A petition of habeas corpus was filed on Al Qosi's behalf.^[8] Following the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Rasul v. Bush (2004) that detainees had the right under habeas corpus to an impartial tribunal to challenge their detention, more than 200 captives had habeas corpus petitions filed on their behalf. Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) at the request of the Bush administration, which suspend their access to the US civilian justice system and shift all responsibility to military tribunals.

In September 2007 the Department of Defense published the unclassified dossiers arising from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of 179 captives.^[9] The Department of Defense withheld the unclassified documents from Al Qosi's Tribunal without explanation.

On June 12, 2008, in its landmark ruling in the Boumediene v. Bush habeas corpus petition, the United States Supreme Court determined that the MCA was unconstitutional for attempting to deprive the captives' of their constitutional right to habeas corpus. It ruled that detainees could access the US federal courts directly.

Charged before military commissions

The first ten presidentially authorized Military Commissions were convened in the former terminal building in the discontinued airfield on the Naval Base's Eastern Peninsula.

The Bush Presidency plans to hold up to 80 of the Congressionally authorized Military Commissions (under the Military Commissions Act of 2006) in a $12 million tent city (photo 2008).

On February 24, 2004, al Qosi was named in documents for the first military commissions to be held for detainees.^[10] The U.S. alleged that he joined al-Qaida in 1989 and worked as a driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, as well as working as a quartermaster for al-Qaida. He was also alleged to have been the treasurer of a business which was an al-Qaida front.

He was indicted along with Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul. The indictment allowed the detainees to consult with military defense lawyers assigned by the government to prepare their defenses. Qosi was charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, including attacking civilians, murder, destruction of property, and terrorism.

Lieutenant Colonel Sharon Shaffer USAF (Judge Advocates Group) was appointed as Qosi's defense lawyer on February 6, 2004.^[11]

On August 27, 2004 Shaffer complained that the Prosecution was not providing her with the information she needed for her defense of Qosi. She said that Qosi had informed her that the quality of translation at his military commission was insufficient for him to understand what was happening.^[12] She told the Tribunal that she had to resign as Qosi's attorney.

According to the Voice of America, Chief Prosecutor Colonel Robert L. Swann assured the commission that: "...all resources will be devoted to obtaining the most accurate translations possible."^[12]

On November 9, 2004 legal action against Qosi was suspended,^[13] The US District Court Justice James Robertson had ruled, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, that the military commissions violated international agreements to which the United States was a signatory, including part of the Geneva Conventions. This ruling applied to all four of the detainees who had been charged by the military commission.

On July 15, 2005 a three-judge appeals panel overturned Robertson's ruling, setting the commissions back in motion.

On November 7, 2005 the US Supreme Court announced that they would be reviewing Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Qosi's case was stayed, pending the outcome of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.^[14]

In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), decided in July, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Bush Presidency lacked the constitutional authority to set up the military commissions. Only Congress had the authority to set up military commissions. Congress subsequently passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which included provisions to suspend the access of detainees to habeas corpus in the US courts.

On February 9, 2008 Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud Al Qosi and Ali Hamza Suleiman Al Bahlul were charged before the Congressionally authorized Guantanamo military commissions authorized by the Military Commissions Act of 2006.^[15][16]

Phoning home

Camp one Guantanamo has a lounge, albeit with shackles, from which certain captives are allowed to make a phone call.

Ibrahim al Qosi was among those who was granted access to telephone privileges.

On May 22, 2008 Lieutenant Colonel Nancy Paul, the Presiding Officer of his Commission ordered that Ibrahim al Qosi be permitted his first phone call home.^[17][18] While it was reported that the phone call was made, this was in error. Qosi had declined to leave his cell to meet with Commander Suzanne Lachelier, his assigned legal counsel, and the Camp's security rules do not permit her going to his cell to talk to him—so they have never discussed his case. During a preliminary hearing, Ibrahim Al Qosi told Paul he does not want to be represented by an American lawyer. He said that he had been unable to hire the lawyer of his choice because he had been isolated in Guantanamo, and had been unable to contact his family since his detention.

Later that day Commander Pauline Storum, a Guantanamo spokesman, reported that the call had been completed, and that he had spoken with his family for an hour.^[17][19][20]

On May 23, 2008 Storum sent an apology by e-mail to reporters to retract her claim the phone call had been completed.^[19][20]

I misspoke when I confirmed that al Qosi's call was complete. In clarifying the current status of the detainee phone program, I misunderstood the information I was given, and inaccurately conveyed that al Qosi's call was completed. I apologize for the error.

Ibrahim Al Qosi's appointed counsel, Suzanne Lachelier, told Carol Rosenberg, of the Miami Herald, that she was surprised to learn, through press reports, that the call had been completed.^[19] She said she had only begun to initiate the co-ordination with the Red Cross to arrange for his family to be set up to receive the call when she learned the call had already been completed. According to Rosenberg:

The original statement Thursday struck some observers as extraordinary -- for both its speed and the coordination between the separate bureaucracies of the prison camp and the war court.

The Department of Defense had until July 1, 2008 to arrange the phone call.^[20]

The US Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush (2008) that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was unconstitutional, as it suspended the right of habeas corpus of detainees. Military commissions were suspended.

July 2009 hearing

The Guantanamo military commission audio system, which has the ability to cut the sound to reporters when witnesses are testifying about classified topics, failed to let reporters hear Padgett's introduction to the court on July 15, 2009.^[21]

On July 15, 2009 Al Qosi had his first hearing that year.^[21] According to Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Lakeland Ledger, the electronic audio management equipment the court had been supplied with in 2008 initially failed to function properly. Rosenberg reported that al Qosi's defense team was concerned that the Prosecution was imposing improper delays, and noted they had told the Presiding Officer.

Continuance

The Barack Obama Presidency was granted a continuance on October 21, 2009.^[22] Congress had amended the MCA, passing the Military Commissions Act of 2009, and the Department of Defense needed to create regulations to implement it. The military commissions for five other captives were granted continuances, until November 16, 2009. Ibrahim al Qosi did not attend this hearing.

New charges rejected, status determination scheduled

On December 3, 2009, Paul ruled that the charges against Al Qosi should be limited to crimes he was alleged to have committed in Afghanistan.^[23][24] She ruled that crimes he was alleged to have committed when al Qaeda was based in Sudan were beyond the mandate of the military commission system.

Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that Paul scheduled hearings for January 6, 2010, to determine whether Al Qosi met the eligibility criteria as an illegal enemy combatant as laid out in the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Only if he was classified under that status would the military commission have jurisdiction to try him.^[25][26] Rosenberg described Paul as the first Presiding Officer of a Military Commission to address the changes that US Congress set in place when passing the Military Commissions Act of 2009.

Andrea Prasow, a senior counsel with Human Rights Watch, was critical of Paul for proceeding with the Commission, although the government had not completed drafting the rules of procedure under the act.^[27]

Guilty Plea

On July 7, 2010, Al Qosi entered a guilty plea under a plea bargain deal, the details of which have not been publicly released. His sentencing was set for August 9, 2010.^[4][28] On August 11, 2010, a military jury at Guantanamo recommended that al-Qosi serve 14 years in prison.^[29]

Repatriation

When al Qosi was transferred to Sudan on July 11, 2012, his lawyer Paul Reichler said al Qosi will enter a Sudan government "re-integration program:"^[6]

“One of the main reasons the United States was willing to return him to Sudan was the U.S. confidence in the government of Sudan’s program and its confidence that Mr. al-Qosi would not represent any kind of threat to the United States. If they had considered him a threat, they would not have released him.”^[6]

Sudan will hold al Qosi in Sudan`s capital, Khartoum, during the initial period of his re-integration. Eventually he will be transferred to his home town of Afbara.^[6] Nine other former Guantanamo detainees have gone through the reintegration program, with no sign of recidivism.

References

External links

• "Bin Laden’s cook is moved to isolation in Gitmo", Al Arabiya, 10 October 2010
• "Military Commissions", Human Rights First blog
• Human Rights First; The Case of Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, Sudan, Human Rights First
• "Former bin Laden cook reaches secret sentencing deal with U.S. government", Washington Post, 9 August 2010
• "Bin Laden Cook Accepts Plea Deal at Guantánamo Trial" Andy Worthington, 8 July 2010
• "Sentencing of detainee stalls at Guantanamo", Washington Post, August 2010

Alleged militants in the War on Terror who have lived in Sudan Deceased persons listed in italics. Alleged al-Qaeda / al-Jihad members Jamal al-Fadl Abu Taha al-Sudan Ibrahim al Qosi L'Houssaine Kherchtou Alleged Islamic Courts Union members Abu Taha al-Sudan Held in Guantanamo Bay Ibrahim al Qosi Noor Uthman Muhammed Wrongly accused Salim Amir Walid Mohammad Ali Mustafa al-Hassan Amir Yakoub al-Amir Mahmoud Sami al-Hajj Adel Hassan Hamad 1 Currently imprisoned.   2 Released after serving sentence.