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Cuba is Next Stop for Afghan POWs
Friday, December 28, 2001
By Jill Zuckman & Naftali Bendavid
Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau

Trying alleged terrorists in Guantanamo Bay would avoid problems that come with locating the trials either in Afghanistan or the United States.

WASHINGTON -- The Chicago Tribune
Al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners from Afghanistan will be moved to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a few weeks, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday, but the U.S. does not plan to hold military tribunals there.

The base, first leased from Cuba in 1903, has been used over the years by the U.S. military to house Cuban and Haitian refugees picked up at sea. It also serves as a staging area for drug interdiction efforts in the Caribbean.

In a news conference, Rumsfeld did not elaborate on the type of preparations being made to hold the prisoners from the conflict in Afghanistan.

"I would characterize Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the least-worst place we could have selected," Rumsfeld said, calling its disadvantages "modest compared to the alternatives."

Defense officials had considered placing responsibility for the detainees in the Pacific Command, possibly on Guam, Hawaii, or some other isolated island under U.S. control, sources said.

Asked if he thought Cuban President Fidel Castro would oppose plans to put the war prisoners on Guantanamo, Rumsfeld said, "We don't anticipate any trouble with Mr. Castro."
(More: The Orlando Sentinel News Source)
2001 © Chicago Tribune.

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