PARIS - The United States has agreed to hand over to France three French detainees at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, judicial officials said Tuesday. The agreement was finalized just as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to arrive in Paris for a meeting with President Jacques Chirac, the officials said on condition of anonymity. | "We're done with them. Here." "Ewwww. Er, thanks, Condi." |
The date of the hand-over of the three French detainees - Mustaq Ali "Pierre" Patel, Ridouane "Jaques" Khalid and Khaled Ben "Michael" Mustafa - has not been finalized yet, the officials said. "Things are headed in the right direction, and we are now discussing the details," said William Bourdon, an attorney for Ali Patel, who has both French and Indian nationality. Four French citizens who were detained in the US-led military campaign that toppled Afghanistan's Taleban regime in 2002 returned to France in August. They are being held as part of an investigation into suspected terror-related networks. |