The U.S. government announced today that it is mounting its first prosecution of enemy prisoners since the aftermath of World War II, charging two detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison who were alleged bodyguards for Osama bin Laden, before a military tribunal with conspiracy to commit war crimes.
Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi of Sudan was an al Qaeda propagandist who produced videos glorifying the terrorist network's attack on the destroyer U.S.S. Cole in Yemen in 2000, and who on Sept. 11, 2001, was given the job of arranging a satellite hookup to Afghanistan so bin Laden could watch news coverage of the event, according to a U.S. military charging document released today.
Al Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul of Yemen was a key al Qaeda accountant and weapons smuggler dating back to the late 1990s, and as a bin Laden bodyguard wore an explosives-laden suicide belt to thwart assassination attempts on the Saudi millionaire, according to a charging document filed against Bahlul.