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More Prisoners
Transferred To Cuba, Saudis Say They Will Interrogate
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Saudi
Arabia says it will interrogate Saudi detainees if Washington hands them
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GUANTANAMO
BAY, Cuba, Feb. 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Another 34 Al-Qaeda and
Taliban fighters captured in the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan landed in Cuba
Saturday, bringing the total number of detainees held in Cuba to 220, as Saudi
Arabia announced they would interrogate their own nationals if the U.S. hands
them over.
CNN
reported that a C-17 cargo plane carrying them left Kandhar, Afghanistan, on
Friday evening under tight security. The detainees were led to the plane in
groups of three and were handcuffed and shackled.
A
group of 28 prisoners had arrived Thursday, the first transfer of prisoners
after a two-week hiatus. Spain, Yemen, Britain and France, all of which
reportedly have nationals among the fighters captured in the U.S.-led campaign
in Afghanistan, have closely monitored the process.
International
outcry over the prisoners' treatment in the open-air maximum security prison
known as "Camp X-Ray" was thought by some to have been the reason the
U.S. military suspended the transfers, though Pentagon officials insisted the
need to build more makeshift cells was behind the delay.
The
34 new arrivals, each bound and shackled like their 186 predecessors, were
dressed in standard-issue zippered orange jumpsuits and blue jackets - the
latter cut off by scissor-wielding U.S. troops as the prisoners descended from
the plane around 19:45 GMT.
A
mobile reaction force of U.S. Marines deployed from North Carolina was also on
hand to ensure things went smoothly, a camp spokesman told reporters, and
watched the detainees board grey buses that would take them to the prison camp,
where they are to stay for an indefinite period of time.
The
White House on Thursday announced that Geneva Convention protection would be
accorded to Taliban fighters, but not to the Al-Qaeda operatives held here,
though neither group would achieve prisoner of war status, a decision much
derided by human rights advocates.
The
U.S. military, insisting that all prisoners, regardless of status, are being
treated humanely, said it would be difficult to immediately implement the new
White House directive as interrogators are still trying to determine the
identities of the detainees, which is proving difficult.
Brig.
Gen. Michael Lehnert, a Marine Task Force commander, commenting on the
detainees’ status, said, "Keep in mind that though the president has made
that distinction, many of the detainees here are not forthcoming…Many have
been interviewed as many as four times, each time giving a different name and
different information," CNN reported.
Lehnert
said there is some degree of segregation between Al-Qaeda fighters and members
of the Taliban.
Saudi
Arabia, for its part, said Sunday that Riyadh would interrogate Saudi suspects
being held by the United States if Washington hands them over.
Interior
Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz said in a joint press conference with his
Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Mohammed Khaled Al-Sabah that the Americans
"only have to hand them to us. We will interrogate them here."
Nayef
said, that if allowed, Saudi Arabia would also send a commission of inquiry to
the U.S. base in Guantanamo to question suspected Saudi members of the Al-Qaeda
network captured in Afghanistan. He added that Riyadh would prefer to be able to
try them in the kingdom. On January 28, Nayef said the number of Saudis detained
in Cuba exceeded one hundred.
Asked
Sunday about those Saudis still being held by Afghan authorities, the interior
minister said his government wanted to see them extradited. "They are Saudi
citizens. Whether they have made mistakes or not, we are asking for their return
to their country to be questioned and [eventually] tried."
Nayef
also said that some 30 suspected supporters of Saudi-born Al-Qaeda leader Osama
bin Laden had been arrested in the kingdom, and some had been subsequently
released. "Others are being sought," he said. "We hope to find
them in order to complete our investigations."
In
Afghanistan, interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai announced Saturday the release
of about 220 Taliban prisoners who had been in Afghan custody. "We decided
some time back that we will begin to release everybody who were not found of any
bad record or links with terrorists and all that, so that they are just common
people and we just let them go home," he said.
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