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| Foreign agents interviewing Guantanamo detainees |
| 2002-06-27 |
| Intelligence and law enforcement agents from Britain, Yemen and other countries have questioned citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay in part to help U.S. investigators. "Ooooh, I get by with a little help from my friends..." The delegations also have asked the prisoners about their treatment and delivered letters from relatives to the U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba. But officials interviewed Tuesday and Wednesday make clear that a major thrust of visits over the past five months has been to gather information from prisoners detained in the U.S. war on terrorism. Might be a little teeny tad of self-interest in there, too... Intelligence agents from Yemen questioned detainees last month, said Yahya Alshawkani, deputy chief of that country's mission in Washington. "This is helpful for us to check the background of the detainees, and check the background of their friends, who they know in Yemen," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday. He said the prisoners were asked "general information," such as when and why some had gone to Afghanistan. "You, know, just to see if anybody's planning on exploding in Sanaa or something..." Officials say there are 69 Yemenis among the 564 detainees from 39 countries, who are accused of belonging to the al-Qaida terrorist network or Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime. Other countries that have sent delegations to Guantanamo include Bahrain, Britain, Spain, Denmark and France. Officials said at least one U.S. official was present during all sessions. American authorities say information gleaned from detainees has helped uncover potential terrorist threats, though they decline to discuss specifics about the interrogations. But don't worry. Somebody in Congress will, we're sure. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |