US to hold Taliban prisoners at Cuban base
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said tonight military officials plan to hold Taliban and al Qaida detainees at a navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
In a Pentagon briefing, Rumsfeld described the base as the ‘‘least, worst place’’ to hold the detainees, suggesting that there are not many options for imprisoning the men once they are in US custody.
He said it could take weeks to prepare the site.
‘‘We don’t anticipate any trouble with Mr Castro,’’ Rumsfeld said when asked whether he thought Cuban leader Fidel Castro would object.
So far, 45 prisoners are in US custody and are being questioned about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and to determine if they should be brought to trial.
Twenty suspected al Qaida fighters who fled the area of eastern Afghanistan where bin Laden may have been hiding were transferred today to a US Marine detention centre in Kandahar.
Marines are already holding 17 prisoners there and another eight are being held on the helicopter carrier USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea.
As he has done repeatedly, Rumsfeld dodged questions about the whereabouts of bin Laden. He also said he did not know of any US intelligence reports since mid-December that would indicate bin Laden was alive.
He said he had not seen a videotape of bin Laden that was released today but apparently made at least a couple weeks ago.
Though he glanced at an excerpt as it flashed across a television, Rumsfeld said he was leaving it to intelligence officials to analyse.
A spokesman for US forces in Guantanamo, under US control since 1903, said the base had received a warning order to prepare for the arrival of prisoners from Afghanistan.
Chief Petty Officer Richard Evans said Guantanamo has detention facilities for about 100 people, dating from the mid-1990s when the base was used to house thousands of Cuban and Haitian refugees.
