Once a detainee,now US ally of sorts

Today,Qumu,51,is a notable figure in the Libyan rebels’ fight to oust Muammar Gaddafi,reportedly a leader of a ragtag band of fighters known as the Darnah Brigade in northeast Libya. The former enemy and prisoner of the US is now an ally of sorts,a remarkable turnabout resulting from shifting American policies rather than any obvious change in Qumu.

He was a tank driver in the Libyan Army in the 1980s,when the CIA was spending billions to support religious militants trying to drive Soviet troops out of Afghanistan. Qumu moved to Afghanistan in the early 1990s,just as Osama bin Laden and other former mujahideen were violently turning against their former benefactor,the United States.

He was captured in Pakistan after the September 11,2001,terrorist attacks,accused of being a member of the militant Libyan Islamic Fighting Group,and sent to Guantánamo—in part because of information provided by Colonel Gaddafi’s government.

When that Guantánamo assessment was written,the US was working closely with Gaddafi’s intelligence service against terrorism. Now,the US is a leader of the international coalition trying to oust Gaddafi—and is backing with air power the rebels,including Qumu.

The classified Guantánamo assessment of Qumu claims that he suffered from “a non-specific personality disorder” and recounted—again citing the Libyan government as its source—a history of drug addiction and drug dealing and accusations of murder and armed assault.

In 2007,he was sent from Guantánamo to Libya and released the next year in an amnesty for militants.