Today, Mr. Qumu, 51, is a notable figure in the struggle of the rebel Libyan to exclude the colonel Muammar el-Gaddafi, was a leader of a group of ragtag fighters known as the Darnah Brigade for his hometown, this rundown port city of 100,000 people in the Northeast Libya. Former foe and prisoner of the United States is now an ally of sorts, a remarkable turnaround resulting displacement of American policies rather than any clear change in Mr. Qumu.
He was a tank driver in the Libyan army in the 1980s, when the Central Intelligence Agency has been spend billions in support of the religious militants, trying to lead the Soviet Afghanistan troops. Mr. Qumu settled in Afghanistan in the 1990s, just as Osama bin Laden and other former mujahedin were violently to return against their former benefactor, in the United States.
He was captured in Pakistan after September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, accused of being a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group activist and sent to Guantánamo - in part because of the information provided by the Government of Colonel Gaddafi.
"The Libyan Government believes detained a 'acts dangerous man with no qualms about committing terrorist activities,'" said the classified assessment 2005, obviously citing the conclusions of Libyan intelligence, which was obtained by the New York Times. ""He was known as one of the extremist Arab-Afghan commanders,""the Libyan information continues, referring to the Arab fighters who remained in Afghanistan after the anti-Soviet jihad."
In this evaluation of Guantánamo, the United States has been working closely with Colonel Gaddafi intelligence on terrorism. Now, the United States is a leader of the international coalition trying to oust Colonel Gaddafi-, vocals with air power the rebels, including Mr. Qumu.
Mr. classified Guantánamo evaluation Qumu says that he was suffering from "a non-specific personality disorder" and that he told - citing once more the Libyan Government as a source - a history of drug trafficking and drug abuse and charges of murder and assault in fact armed.
In 1993, the document says, Mr. Qumu escaped from a Libyan prison, escaped in Egypt and continued in Afghanistan, training at a camp run by Mr. bin Laden. At Guantánamo, Mr. Qumu denied having knowledge of terrorist activities. He said that he feared he would be returned to Libya, where he faces criminal charges and asked to go to other countries where "(United States) you can look at me," according to a summary hearing.
However, in 2007, he was sent to Guantánamo in Libya and released the following year in an amnesty for militants.
Colonel Gaddafi has cited claims about Mr. Qumu instructions past blame Al Qaeda for the Libyan uprising together. American officials nervously noted the presence of at least some former activists in the ranks of the rebels.
The walls of the buildings along the road in Darnah are decorated with slogans anti-Qathafi and usual pro-Western in English and Arabic found anywhere in the eastern Libya. But there are notable additions: "Non qaida" and "no to extremism."
Darnah has reason to be tense. The city has a long history of militancy, including a revolt against the domination of Colonel Gaddafi, led by Islamists in the 1990s, which led to a brutal repression. Activists here are credited from veteran Libyan Islamic Group, which later announced that he was to become affiliated with Al Qaeda, and that sends as Mr. Qumu militants to fight in Afghanistan.
Most famous, however, Darnah has to be more productive soil recruitment of the world for suicide bombers. An analysis of 600 bombers in Iraq by the Centre for combating terrorism at West Point concluded that 440 whose name is their 70 in a list of recruitment, 52 were of Darnah, most of any cityin Riyadh, Saudi saoudite40 times as populous, as the most important source following, sending 51.
In addition to Mr. Qumu, local residents say that the Darnah Brigade is headed by Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi, another Libyan thought to be an activist who was Afghanistan during the reign of the Taliban, when Al Qaeda had training camps.
Mr. Qumu did not for an interview, promised last week, but Mr. Hasadi did, lattice chiffonnés with a light beard and a lazy left eye, perpetually half closed. He denied that Mr. Qumu was in his group, recently renamed the Martyrs of Abu Salim Brigade, after a prison in Tripoli where 1 200 inmates were killed in 1996. Two of the sons of Mr. Qumu are in his brigade, he said.
"I don't know how to convince everyone that we are not Al Qaeda here", said Mr. Hasadi. "Our goal is to overthrow Qathafi", he added. "I know that you will never believe me, but it's true.".
For the moment, Western observers in Benghazi, the capital of rebels temporary 180 miles away, seem satisfied to accept those assurances. "We are worried Al Qaeda infiltration from outside than those Aboriginal" it said. "Most of them have a local action so that they are not as much as a threat to the West".
Rod Nordland declared in Darnah and Scott Shane of Washington. Kareem Fahim contributed reports from Benghazi in Libya.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 25, 2011
An earlier version of the legend of the image with this article incorrectly identified Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi as Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu.
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