| Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a
Pentagon spokesman, said about 1,000 troops were initially being sent to
the base, with another 500 expected to go in the coming weeks.
Gen. Tommy Franks, the head
of the military effort in Afghanistan, said Friday that the first prisoners
will arrive at Guantanamo within 10 days.
Military personnel are also
being sent from Fort Campbell, Ky., Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Norfolk Naval
Station, Va., among other bases, Davis said.
Davis said they will be held
in “maximum security” conditions, and will be treated in accordance with
international standards for military prisoners and have access to Red Cross
and other non-governmental organization personnel.
AFGHAN RIOT IN MIND
The base is well-defended
and offers few avenues of escape for prisoners, but military officials
are keeping in mind the al-Qaida prison riot in Afghanistan, which left
hundreds dead, including CIA officer Johnny “Mike” Spann, Davis said.
“We are cognizant of the
incident that took place in Mazar-e-Sharif,” Davis said. “Many of these
people have demonstrated their determination to kill others, kill themselves
or escape.”
No decision has been made whether to hold military tribunals for some of
the prisoners at the Navy base, Davis said.
The U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo predates the communist revolution on the
island nation. Fidel Castro’s government says the base should have been
closed and returned to Cuban control decades ago. But U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter,
R-Pa., who is in Cuba on an official mission, said Sunday that the Cuban
leader expressed no opposition to the use of the base as a prison for Taliban
or al-Qaida members.
ZAEEF ON
BOARD BATAAN
U.S. officials said Monday
that 346 suspected Taliban or al-Qaida members captured in Afghanistan
and Pakistan have been turned over to U.S. custody. Soldiers were guarding
300 prisoners at the base in Kandahar, 21 at Bagram air base north of Kabul,
and 16 in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, officials told NBC News.
Another nine prisoners, including
American Taliban John Walker Lindh and the former Taliban ambassador to
Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef, are being held on the USS Bataan in the Arabian
Sea.
Afghan and Pakistani authorities
are holding thousands more prisoners captured during the fighting. |
 |
Based in Islamabad, Zaeef was
the main mouthpiece for the hard-line Islamic movement as the United States
prepared and launched its onslaught in Afghanistan last fall.
During the height of the
bombing campaign, he held daily news conferences at his embassy in Islamabad
to defend the Taliban but he was eventually shut down by Pakistan’s government.
Zaeef was arrested Thursday
by Pakistani authorities and taken to the border town of Peshawar and questioned.
Pakistan said he was deported Saturday to Afghanistan, but refused to say
whether he had been turned over to Afghan or American authorities.
Pakistan, one of only three
countries that recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan,
said Zaeef lost his diplomatic immunity when Taliban rule collapsed.
The U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees rejected Zaeef’s application for refugee status. Pakistan
has said his wife and six children can remain in the country for a while.
TOP AL-QAIDA OFFICIAL
HELD
Another high-profile U.S.
prisoner, Ibn Al-Shayk al-Libi — accused of running al-Qaida terrorist
training camps in Afghanistan — was transferred Saturday from anti-Taliban
forces to U.S. authorities at Kandahar airport, which is controlled by
the Marines.
“The big question, of course,
is: Will they talk?” former Central Intelligence Agency terrorism analyst
Stan Beddington said Saturday in the United States. “If they are able to
talk, I have no doubt whatsoever they will give a lot of information, particularly
in the search for bin Laden.”
Al-Libi was No. 17 on Bush’s
Sept. 23 list of terrorist organizations and individuals whose assets were
to be frozen worldwide.
U.S. government sources told
NBC News that he was handed over by Pakistan, where he had escaped under
an assumed name, and was to be eventually transferred to the USS Bataan.
“He is the highest-ranking
al-Qaida yet under our control,” another U.S. official told Reuters on
condition of anonymity.
Bush’s list identified al-Libi
as a “terrorist leader” but provided no further details.
|
