A LONGTIME associate of Osama bin Laden has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and providing material support to a terrorist organisation, at a military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Sudanese national Ibrahim al Qosi, who turned 50 this month, is alleged to have been a supporter of bin Laden since meeting him in the Sudan in the early 1990s and ultimately followed the al Qaeda leader to Afghanistan.
Court documents allege that al Qosi served a number of roles for his longtime friend: from cook, to driver, to accountant and that he allegedly facilitated bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan in late 2001.
The court was engaged in a process known as "providence inquiry" - a lengthy question and answer session between the military judge and al Qosi.
The judge must be satisfied that al Qosi is pleading guilty freely, he understands fully the charges he is admitting to, and there is evidence to support his guilty plea.
| Good luck with that, the AQ training manual tells 'em to lie all the time ... |
There is the possibility that detailed information about bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora would be made public for the first time at the hearing.
Only once the judge and al Qosi run through a six-page stipulation of fact, which includes 26 separate paragraphs outlining his relationship to al Qaeda, would his pleas be accepted. Once the hearing is finished, and if the guilty pleas were accepted by the judge, it would be the first conviction of President Obama's military commissions.
It would only be the second guilty plea of the entire commission process under this administration and the previous administration.
| But we can bring them to the US and try them in federal courts, honest ... |
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