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Bin Laden's cook pleads guilty to terror charge
 [Al Arabiya Latest] Osama bin Laden's former cook on Thursday pleaded guilty at a U.S. military trial in Guantanamo Bay to providing support to terrorism and conspiracy, the first conviction for the Obama administration at the controversial court.Ibrahim Ahmed al-Qosi, a 50-year old Sudanese national held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for eight years, admitted to being part of al-Qaeda and to providing the terrorist group with material that supported its operations. Qosi ran the kitchen of bin Laden's Star of Jihad compound in the Afghani city Jalalabad and was al-Qaeda leader's driver and bodyguard. He is known as 'Bin Laden's cook.' After his arrest, the U.S. military accused Qosi of helping Bin Laden to escape to the Tora Bora Mountains after the United States led invasion in 2001. He is also accused of being a member of al-Qaeda's mortar crew. Qosi pleaded guilty in a two-hour hearing, in which he admitted under oath that he provided logistical support to al-Qaeda while being fully aware of the group's terrorist activities, said Guantanamo court spokesman Joe DellaVedova. "He admitted he engaged in hostilities against the United States in violation of the laws of war," DellaVedova said. Qosi, DellaVedova added, confessed that his activities date back to 1996 when bin Laden urged his followers to declare holy Jihad against the United States. The terms of Qosi's plea were not revealed although it seems unlikely that he would plead guilty to all charges without negotiating a limit to his sentence. A panel of U.S. military officers is scheduled to convene Aug. 9 at Guantanamo to hear evidence and deliberate on the sentence, which is expected to range between no additional time and life imprisonment. With this confession, Qosi becomes the fourth prisoner convicted in the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which now holds 181 prisoners, and the first in the Obama administration. Posted by: Fred 2010-07-09 |
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