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Saudis Want Their Detainees Sent Home
Mon Jan 28, 6:04 PM ETBy TONY WINTON, Associated Press Writer
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Saudi Arabia said Monday that more than 100 of its citizens are in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, making Saudis by far the largest group of terrorist suspects detained on this remote U.S. naval base. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef urged the United States to turn over the Saudi detainees for interrogation at home. In Washington, President Bush said "we'll make a decision on a case-by-case basis as to whether they go back to Saudi Arabia or not." The president did not comment on the number of Saudis being held.
Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally in the Middle East, has come under criticism in the United States from some who say the ruling royal family has done too little to crack down on terrorists and extremists.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers that carried out the Sept. 11 terrorist attack were Saudis although Saudi officials insist no Saudi involvement has been proven. Osama bin Laden, whose al-Qaida network is believed to have carried out the worst terrorist attack in history, was a Saudi national until his citizenship was revoked in the 1990s.
The disclosure Monday that more than half of the detainees on Guantanamo Bay are Saudis clarified some of the mystery over the nationalities of the 158 men who spend their days in orange jumpsuits and open-air cells at a heavily fortified camp in eastern Cuba.
U.S. military officials have not identified the detainees captured in Afghanistan, except to say they come from 25 countries.
A handful of states, including Australia, Yemen, Sweden and Britain have revealed that they have citizens among the detainees and France was sending a delegation to the base to verify the citizenship of several suspects.
U.S. officials say the detainees are among the most dangerous al-Qaida and Taliban fighters captured during the U.S.-led war on terrorism, launched after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Australian detainee David Hicks, 26, allegedly threatened to kill an American upon his arrival at Guantanamo, U.S. officials said. Hicks' father, Terry, has said his son — a recent convert to Islam — called home 17 days after the Sept. 11 attacks to say that he was with the Taliban.
Australian newspapers have printed photos of Hicks as a freckled 10-year-old schoolboy alongside a photo of him as a bazooka-toting soldier in battle fatigues taken during a stint in Kosovo where he fought with Muslims in the Kosovo Liberation Army.
His case has drawn comparisons with that of John Walker Lindh, the American who was captured with the Taliban. Lindh was flown back to the United States last week, where he faces charges, including conspiracy to kill fellow Americans, that could bring life in prison.
Apart from those held in Guantanamo, an additional 309 suspects were in U.S. military custody in Afghanistan, military officials there said on Monday.
A senior defense official at the Pentagon said Monday that approximately one-fifth of the 482 prisoners held in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay are Saudi nationals. The next biggest group by nationality is Yemeni, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Bush said his administration was still considering the legalities surrounding the detainees' status, but during a news conference in Washington with visiting Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, the president added: "they will not be treated as prisoners of war, they're illegal combatants."
Human rights groups have been pushing the United States to designate the detainees as prisoner-of-war, a status that would guarantee them greater protections under the Geneva Convention.
Several of America's closest allies, including France, have expressed concern over the treatment of the suspects, who have been photographed shackled and blindfolded.
Britain, a key U.S. ally, said last week that it wants the United States to return British suspects to stand trial at home. In addition to three Britons held on Guantanamo, the British Foreign Office said Monday that two others, believed to be British, are being held by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Speaking to reporters Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Prince Nayef revealed for the first time that "more than 100" Saudis were being detained by the U.S. military and that the kingdom wants its citizens returned home.
"I know about them but we don't know the charges against them except that they were arrested in Afghanistan," Nayef said "The issue of prisoners is important to us and we ask that they be handed over to us so we can interrogate them, since they fall under the kingdom's regulations."
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said that prisoners would be repatriated to "those countries that we feel will handle them appropriately."
"We have no desire to hold on to large numbers of detainees of any kind for any great length of time. But we want to make sure these people are not back out on the streets," she said.
Nayef said the Saudi government was in touch with the United States and hoped for U.S. cooperation concerning Saudis being held at Guantanamo.