August 11, 2010 (WASHINGTON) — The Sudanese government made a written pledge to the United States that it will place its citizens released from detention in Guantanamo in a rehabilitation program and closely monitor them to ensure their “de-radicalization”, according to documents published by Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
In this photo of a sketch by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin and reviewed by a U.S. Department of Defense official, 50-year-old al-Qaida cook from Sudan, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi,, left, attends his war crimes trial at the Camp Justice compound on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010 (AP)The National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) said in a letter transmitted by the U.S. embassy in Khartoum dated July 28 that it has “developed a standard process for individuals repatriated to Sudan from abroad through extradition or other means”.
NISS agents would receive the freed Guantanamo detainee at the airport and take him to a secure location where he would undergo extensive rehabilitation program that involves education, job skills training, marriage counselling and de-radicalization counselling by moderate Islamic sheiks and scholars.
If the ex-detainee successfully completes the program he is then released, placed in a job and directed to only attend NISS approved mosques.
The spy agency would continue to monitor the individual through a surveillance team and informants to ensure that “no longer [adheres] to a radical ideology”. The monitoring would include the ex-detainee’s email and phone. The agency said its program is “85% effective.”
A separate letter by then Sudanese foreign minister Deng Alor last year to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he praised “the positive engagement of the Obama administration” and added that “Sudan is ready to cooperate with President [Barack] Obama in his effort to close down the Guantanamo facility” by accepting additional detainees.
Alor further said that Sudan would treat them in accordance with international humanitarian laws and will accept any verification missions by the U.S.
On Wednesday, a U.S. military tribunal sentenced Osama bin Laden’s former cook to 14 years in prison, but he is expected to serve far less under a plea deal.
The defendant, Sudanese captive Ibrahim al Qosi, pleaded guilty last month in the war crimes court at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base to charges of conspiring with al Qaeda and providing material support for terrorism.
Qosi, a 50-year-old with a white beard, has been held at Guantanamo for more than eight years.
Military officials said it could be several months before his full plea agreement is made public. But the al-Arabiya television network based in Dubai quoted unidentified sources as saying it caps his sentence at two years.
After his sentence, he is set to be repatriated to Sudan, joining nine other Sudanese Guantanamo detainees sent home there, officials said.
Seeking to assure the commission that Mr. Qosi wouldn’t threaten the U.S. once repatriated, Maj. Todd Pierce, one of his military defence attorneys, introduced correspondence from the Sudanese government promising to keep the former cook under strict watch.
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