The group of U.S. prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility got a little smaller yesterday, when Ibrahim al Qosi, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, was released and returned to Sudan. The transfer comes two years after al Qosi pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy.
So, why isn’t the right apoplectic? Why aren’t Rudy Giuliani and Liz Cheney all over my television, telling me the dastardly Obama administration is undermining national security by releasing a known bin Laden ally?
Because al Qosi was released under the system of military commissions that Republicans demanded.
The commission imposed a symbolic sentence of 14 years in prison, in addition to the more than eight years Mr. Qosi had already been held at Guantanamo by that point. But 12 years of the prison sentence were suspended as part of the plea deal.









