Rick Moran "Shortly after unrest broke out in eastern Libya in mid-February, reports emerged that an "Islamic Emirate" had been declared in the eastern Libyan town of Darnah and that, furthermore, the alleged head of that Emirate, Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi, was a former detainee at the American prison camp in Guantánamo. The reports, which originated from Libyan government sources, were largely ignored or dismissed in the Western media.
"Now, however, al-Hasadi has admitted in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore that he fought against American forces in Afghanistan."
Former Guantanamo Detainee Denies Islamic Emirate Has Been Set Up in Eastern Libya [UPDATE:1] "Libya’s deputy foreign minister, Khaled Khaim, has reportedly told European Union ambassadors in Tripoli that al-Qaeda has set up an Islamic emirate in Derna in Eastern Libya. He allegedly said a former Guantanamo Bay detainee is heading the emirate. Residents in Derna deny this has happened."
Libyan opposition leader wasn't held at Guantanamo "In his interviews with Western publications, Al Hasadi has denied that he was held at Gitmo. And while that is not necessarily dispositive in and of itself, there is no record of his detention at Gitmo in any of the declassified files that have been produced and released from the military detention facility.
"This doesn't mean that al Hasadi, who says he is in charge of defending Derna, a known hotbed for Islamic extremism in eastern Libya, is necessarily a benign actor, however."
From The Long War Journal