Guantanamo detainee pleads guilty at military commission

Guantanamo detainee pleads guilty at military commission
By Frances Robles | Miami Herald
Posted on Wednesday, July 7, 2010

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- A Sudanese citizen accused of being Osama bin Laden's cook and a member of an al Qaida mortar squad pleaded guilty today to charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism.

The terms of the deal that led to Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi's guilty plea were not released. Qosi could face life in prison, but it is likely that Qosi entered his plea in exchange for a lesser sentence. He'll be sentenced in August.

Qosi's guilty plea marks the first conviction at the Guantanamo Navy Base military commissions since President Barack Obama became president and the fourth since the camp began holding trials of people detained at Guantanamo as suspected terrorists.

Two of those, Australian David Hicks, who pleaded guilty in exchange for return to Australia, and Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni who was accused of being bin Laden's driver, are free today in their home countries. The third, Ali Hamza al Bahlul, chose not to mount a defense to charges that he was bin Laden's propagandist and was sentenced to life in prison. He is the only person being held at Guantanamo's section for convicted prisoners.

Qosi's likely plea deal was first reported by Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg on June 21, but Rosenberg was unable to attend today's hearing because she was banned by the Pentagon from covering military commissions for three months for publishing the name of a witness the Pentagon wanted kept secret in another Guantanamo case.



unhappycamper comment: The Guantanamo Navy Base prison is a stain upon the American system of justice. Much the same as Baghram and all those secret detention facilities scattered around the world.

Again, no trial in open court, no presentation of evidence and cross-examination of witnesses, just a plea bargain by some schmuck who was worried about facing a death penalty charge. Now, after years of being held incommunicado subjected to only our military knows what, we have a "conviction" of one of the "worst of the worst." Conspiracy and providing material support to terrorism, whatever in hell that means anymore.