 |
|
U.S. forces take custody of prisoners
12/31/01
By MATT KELLEY / Associated Press
WASHINGTON – U.S. forces in Afghanistan have taken custody of 30 more suspected Taliban or al-Qaida prisoners, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Monday.
Twenty-five more prisoners were taken to the U.S. base at the southern city of Kandahar, bringing the total there to 164, Maj. Cynthia Colin said. Another five joined the two being held at the air base in Bagram, north of Kabul.
The additions bring the total number of prisoners held by the United States to 180. Another prisoner is being held in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Eight others, including American John Walker Lindh, are held aboard the USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said information given him indicates that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is alive but his whereabouts remains a mystery.
"The latest intelligence we had indicates that the high probabilities are that bin Laden is still alive," Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition."
"Where he is, is a question mark. The trail has gone cold as to whether he's still in the caves of Tora Bora or, in fact, has slipped out into Pakistan" from Afghanistan.
Graham offered no further details and said he could not say why he believes bin Laden is still alive.
U.S. officials believe bin Laden was in the mountainous Tora Bora area of eastern Afghanistan at least until mid-December. In a new videotape, the terrorist leader wanted in connected with the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States implied he was speaking in early or mid-December.
Since then, conflicting reports have emerged about whether bin Laden is dead or alive, in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
The New York Times reported that classified U.S. intelligence documents show that representatives of bin Laden contacted Iranian intelligence agents in the mid-1990s in an attempt to forge an alliance against the United States.
On the military front, officials said U.S. Marines were preparing to hand over the Kandahar base in southern Afghanistan to soldiers from the Army's 101st Airborne Division.
The Army troops will take over operations at the airport base, where Marines have been preparing runways for humanitarian flights and building facilities to hold hundreds of detainees.
Interrogators from the military, FBI and CIA are questioning the prisoners about the al-Qaida network and bin Laden's whereabouts.
The Marines being replaced at the Kandahar base are part of two Marine Expeditionary Units based on amphibious assault ships now in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan. Their replacement in Afghanistan will give the Marines "the opportunity to prepare for future missions," said another Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Mike Humm. He could not say when the transfer would be complete.
The United States is taking custody of prisoners who officials believe might have useful information about bin Laden's network or could be charged with terrorism or war crimes. U.S. forces have been moving batches of detainees from the northern town of Shibergan to Kandahar since Friday.
An undetermined number of the prisoners eventually will be sent to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Construction of facilities for the prisoners there is expected to take several weeks.