Guantanamo WikiLeaks Feature: From "Probable Al Qa'eda Member" to US Ally in Libya (Nordland/Shane)
Monday, April 25, 2011 at 20:59
For more than five years, Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu (see his Guantanamo detainee file) was a prisoner at the Guantánamo Bay prison, judged “a probable member of Al Qaeda” by the analysts there. They concluded in a newly disclosed 2005 assessment that his release would represent a “medium to high risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests and allies.”
Today, Mr. Qumu, 51, is a notable figure in the Libyan rebels’ fight to oust Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, reportedly a leader of a ragtag band of fighters known as the Darnah Brigade for his birthplace, this shabby port town of 100,000 people in northeast Libya. The former enemy and prisoner of the United States is now an ally of sorts, a remarkable turnabout resulting from shifting American policies rather than any obvious change in Mr. Qumu.