WASHINGTON,
March 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) -On the heels of a U.S.
Congressional delegation to Guantanamo Bay, Egypt confirmed for the
first time that some of its nationals are being detained in Camp
X-Ray at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"The
American authorities have recently arrested a certain number of
Egyptian terrorists, and they are currently being questioned at the
American base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba," Interior Minister
Habib Al-Adly said in an interview with the Egyptian daily
newspaper, Al-Ahram, Saturday.
The
minister did not give an exact number of Egyptians at Camp X-Ray,
where the U.S. has detained suspects from the U.S.-led war on
Afghanistan, notably members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network
and the country's deposed Taliban militia, or say when they were
detained.
However,
Adly claimed that they were "fleeing terrorists who belonged to
the Al-Qaeda organization who had worked with Osama bin Laden,"
who has been accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks on
the United States.
He
added that U.S. officials have also not provided an exact number of
Egyptians detained at the base because "members of [terrorist]
organizations, who are fleeing, are not in the habit of carrying
real passports."
On
Friday, U.S. congressional members from the House of Representatives
toured the Guantanamo Bay naval base.
CNN
reports that Rep. David Hobson (R-OH), the chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on military construction,
led a team of 10 representatives to the internment site.
The
commander of the detention facility at Guantanamo, Marine Corps
Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert, escorted the delegation, taking a look
at current detainee facilities and the proposed permanent facilities
presently under construction, and commented that construction for
the 408 new detainee units was on schedule.
A
Guantanamo Bay spokesman said to CNN that the units will be walled,
with screened windows, and the 300 detainees at Camp X-Ray will be
moved to the new camp soon. U.S. military officials are quick to
point out that the current security force quarters are not much
different from those of the detainees, CNN reported.
International
law under the Geneva Convention mandates that prisoner facilities
match the facilities provided for those guarding them.
