1,500 American troops head to Cuba

01/07/2002

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer

U.S. troops head to Cuba AP/Harry Cabluck

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans tight security for hundreds of al-Qaida and Taliban captives expected at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and is sending 1,500 military police and other troops to build a prison there.

Already, 1,000 U.S. troops have orders for Cuba — some by way of southwest Asia, where they will help transport the prisoners around the world to the base, officials said. Five hundred more soldiers will be ordered to the base in the coming weeks.

They will first build a prison on a section of the base, and then guard it, Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Sunday. Fewer than 100 prisoners are expected at Guantanamo within a week; base officials have been told to prepare for as many as 2,000 in the coming months, Davis said.

The security is being planned with an eye toward the riot by al-Qaida prisoners at Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, that left hundreds dead, including CIA officer Johnny ``Mike'' Spann.

``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.''

Meanwhile Sunday, two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee said there's a growing belief that Osama bin Laden, the top target in the U.S. war on terrorism, has fled Afghanistan and slipped into Pakistan.

Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who is traveling with other senators in the region, said Uzbekistan's military intelligence service believes bin Laden has crossed the border into Pakistan. Uzbekistan, like Pakistan, borders Afghanistan and has been a U.S. ally in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

``I fully expect the Pakistanis will do everything they can to help us locate bin Laden,'' Edwards said on ``Fox News Sunday.''

Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said bin Laden and other top officials may well have fled Afghanistan.

``Increasingly as our efforts to get them in Afghanistan have been futile, there is a greater sense that they have, in fact, escaped, and are probably in one of those tribal territories just over the border into Pakistan,'' Graham said on ABC's ``This Week.''

Bin Laden was thought to be in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, but he has not turned up in searches by U.S. and anti-Taliban forces there. Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was most recently thought to be near Baghran, but Afghan officials now say they believe he escaped.

In Cuba, the prisoners will be held in ``maximum security'' conditions, the Pentagon said, and will be treated in accordance with international standards for military prisoners and have access to the Red Cross and other non-governmental organizations.

No decision has been made whether to hold military tribunals for some of the prisoners at the Navy base, Davis said.

Many of the troops will be Army military police from Fort Hood, Texas.

``This is our part and we are going down to take care of business,'' Col. Terry Carrico, commander of the 89th Military Police Brigade, said before flying to Cuba to prepare for the troops' arrival.

Military personnel are also being sent from Fort Campbell, Ky., Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Norfolk Naval Station, Va., among other bases, Davis said. The prison operation will be commanded by Marine Brig. Gen. Michael R. Lehnert from Camp Lejeune.

The Guantanamo base predates the 1959 communist revolution in Cuba. It is well-defended and would offer few avenues of escape for prisoners. Fidel Castro's government says the base should have been closed and returned to Cuban control decades ago.

More than 300 suspected Taliban or al-Qaida members were in U.S. custody this weekend, military officials said. Soldiers were guarding 275 prisoners at the base in Kandahar, 21 at Bagram air base north of Kabul, and one in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Nine prisoners, including American Taliban John Walker Lindh, also are being held on the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea. Afghan and Pakistani authorities are holding thousands more prisoners captured during the fighting.