Few things in American politics and the War on Terror have been as contentious as the Guantanamo Bay Prison, the United States’ maximum security prison located on the outskirts of Cuba that is home to some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists and criminals. Before all headlines in the past year switched over to Donald Trump and guns it seems like the only thing politicians were debating was whether or not the U.S. should close our Guantanamo Bay prison, and this news is almost certainly going to stoke the flames of the Guantanamo debate: a prisoner released from the Guantanamo Bay prison in 2012, Bin Laden’s former treasurer and driver, has since gone on to become a senior leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen.
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee who worked as Osama Bin Laden’s treasurer has appeared in an al-Qaeda propaganda video after secretly joining the jihadi franchise in Yemen.
Ibrahim Qosi, who is also known as Sheikh Khubayb al Sudani, was detained in Guantanamo Bay in 2003 after he was caught by Pakistani forces at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in December 2001.
He was released in 2012 after pleading guilty in 2010 to having been an al-Qaeda foot soldier.
Now it has been revealed that Qosi, who served as Osama Bin Laden’s long time treasurer and driver, has become a top leader in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen.
The propaganda video also provides fresh evidence that notorious radical Anwar al-Awlaki played a central role in training and inspiring young al-Qaeda recruits in terror camps in Yemen.
It included new footage of the notorious ‘underpants bomber’ Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab being taught by Anwar al-Awlaki and undergoing jihadi training.
Umar Farouk is serving a life sentence in prison without parole after he attempted to detonate an explosive device hidden in his underwear whilst on board a commercial plane from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
Much of the hour-long propaganda video promotes the career of the radical American cleric Anwar al-Awalki, who was killed by a hellfire missile on 30 September 2011.
Ibrahim Qosi called the Guantanamo Bay Prison home from 2003 to 2012. He was apprehended in December of 2001, transferred to Guantanamo in 2003, and released in 2012 only to return to al-Qaeda as one of the highest ranking leaders in Yemen.
I really don’t know what to say here other than ‘shit is fucked’. Why we let a man out of prison who was clearly a threat to go right back to his terrorist organization is beyond comprehension for me. For more on this story you can click here to head on over to the Daily Mail.