Al-Arabiya's Muna Shikaki reported around the time that the sentence for Osama bin Laden's former cook, Ibrahim al-Qosi, was announced, that there was a secret plea agreement reducing his sentence. Her reporting has since been vindicated, as the Department of Defense said yesterday that al-Qosi's sentence has been reduced from 14 years to a mere two for conspiracy and providing material support to al-Qaeda.
So in two years, al-Qosi will be free. He'll join bin Laden's former limo driver Salim Hamdan who served five months post-conviction and Australian David Hicks who served nine months post-conviction. Omar Khadr will serve only about eight years of his 40-year sentence, owing in part to the bizarre nature of his trial. The only person tried by military commission who has actually received a life sentence is al-Qaeda propagandist Ali al-Bahlul, and largely because he boycotted his own trial.
Again, this is the system conservatives prefer we'd use. Not because it works better but because it's less fair.
