Ex-Guantanamo detainee discusses his life with Osama bin Laden

[Valin]

Long War Journal:

Thomas Joscelyn

May 17, 2016

 

The 15th issue of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) Inspire magazine, which was released online on May 14, features two pieces on Ibrahim al Qosi’s life with Osama bin Laden.

 

Qosi worked for bin Laden in a variety of roles from the early 1990s until Dec. 2001, when he fled the Battle of Tora Bora and was captured by Pakistani forces. He was then held at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from 2002 until July 2012, when he was transferred to his home country of Sudan. Just over two years later, in Dec. 2014, AQAP reintroduced Qosi as a senior al Qaeda figure. [see LWJ report, Ex-Guantanamo detainee now an al Qaeda leader in Yemen.]

 

Qosi recounts his time with bin Laden in a lengthy interview with Inspire’s editors. The interview appears to be comprised partly of a transcript of Qosi’s answers to some questions one of his comrades posed and written text. For instance, the “interview” contains lengthy block quotes from books such as President Obama’s The Audacity of Hope. In addition to the interview, Qosi penned an article titled, “A Moment in the Life of Sheikh Usama,” which describes the financial difficulties al Qaeda faced around the time of the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

 

As someone who worked closely with bin Laden, Qosi’s testimony provides another window into al Qaeda during its formative years, well before the 9/11 attacks changed the course of history.

 

The biographical details Qosi provides are consistent with those laid out in declassified and leaked files prepared by Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO). [For more on Qosi’s background, see LWJ reports: Al Qaeda bodyguard and accountant pleads guilty before military commission and Bin Laden loyalist transferred from Guantanamo to Sudan.]

 

In his interview, Qosi explains that he sought to join the jihad against the Soviets in 1988, but he “met two brothers from al Qaeda, who came to Sudan from Afghanistan.” The pair of al Qaeda operatives “assigned…some commercial, administration [sic] and other activities” to Qosi in the Sudan. Only in August 1990 did he finally travel to Afghanistan. He was then “blessed” to “accompany and serve Sheikh Osama” from “the beginning of 1992 until our withdrawal from Tora Bora” and Qosi’s subsequent capture in Dec. 2001.

 

Al Qaeda in Chechnya

 

(Snip)