Ибрагим аль-Коси: Суданский член Аль-Каиды и заключенный Гуантанамо

Sudanese al Qaeda member

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi (إبراهيم أحمد محمود القوصي) (born July 1960) is a Sudanese militant and paymaster for al Qaeda. Qosi was held from January 2002 in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. 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. After pleading guilty in a plea bargain in 2010, in the first trial under the military commissions,

In November 2019, the Rewards for Justice Program offered $4 million for information leading to the identification or location of Al Qosi.

Ibrahim Al Qosi was born in 1960 in Atbara, Sudan. He has a brother named Abdullah. He is married to one of Abdullah Tabarak's daughters and has two daughters. In 1990, Qosi was recruited by Sudanese jihadists and later traveled to Afghanistan via the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, where he trained at a training camp outside of Khost. Two years later, he returned to Khartoum and worked in currency trading. In 1995, he went to Chechnya via Syria, Azerbaijan and Dagestan, where he fought in the First Chechen War as a mortar operator. A year later, he went back to Afghanistan where he aided in the fight against the Northern Alliance from 1998 to 2001. However, he was captured by the Pakistani authorities while trying to cross the Afghan Pakistani borders on 15 December 2001 near Parachinar, Pakistan. Then he was detained in a prison in Peshawar until 27 December, before being held in US custody at a Kandahar detention facility. Later on, he was transferred to Guantanamo on 13 January 2002. Qosi was the first captive to face charges before a Guantanamo military commission. In 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts. Al Qosi's assessment was eleven pages long, and was drafted on November 15, 2007. It was signed by camp commandant Mark H. Buzby. The report noted that al Qosi had been "compliant and non hostile to the guard force and staff."

On February 24, 2004, al Qosi was named in documents for the first military commissions to be held for detainees. The United States alleged that he joined al Qaeda in 1989 and worked as a driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, as well as working as a quartermaster for al Qaeda. 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. Al 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 al Qosi's defense lawyer on February 6, 2004. On August 27, 2004, Shaffer complained that the prosecution was not providing her with the information she needed for her defense of al Qosi. She said that al Qosi had informed her that the quality of translation at his military commission was insufficient for him to understand what was happening. She told the tribunal that she had to resign as al 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." 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. In 2005, a three judge appeals panel overturned Robertson's ruling, setting the commissions back in motion. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the president lacked the constitutional authority to establish military the military commissions, and that only Congress could do so. 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, 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.

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

The Barack Obama presidency was granted a continuance on October 21, 2009. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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. On August 11, 2010, a military jury at Guantanamo recommended that al Qosi serve 14 years in prison.

Other individuals who, like al Qosi, had pleaded guilty to "providing material support for terrorism", had their convictions overturned on appeal. He gave a 12 page interview on the life and legacy of Osama bin Laden in the AQAP magazine "Inspire" Spring 2016 issue (#15). In October 2021, Qosi threatened the United States with attacks and praised Nidal Hasan.