The United States has returned several Al Qaida operatives
to Saudi Arabia.
U.S. officials said the Defense Department approved the transfer of four
Al Qaida insurgents to Saudi Arabia in late 2003.
The transfer came after repeated Saudi government requests for the
release of Saudi nationals captured by the U.S. military during the war in
Afghanistan in October 2001. The war was joined after Al Qaida killed more
than 3,000 Americans in suicide attacks that destroyed New York City's World
Trade Center and part of the Pentagon in Washington.
More than 10,000 suspected Al Qaida and Taliban combatants were captured
during the U.S. war in Afghanistan. About 650 of them were taken to Camp
Delta where they were screened and interrogated. The detainees comprised
nationals from 44 countries, including 30 detainees from Egypt, Middle East Newsline reported.
The officials said the transfer took place after a long period of negotiations with Riyad regarding
the terms of the release of the Al Qaida operatives.
"We're asking foreign governments to take responsibility for these
detainees, to provide [us] with assurances that we think will address the risks
that these detainees pose once they're transferred to the custody of the
foreign government," said Paul Butler, the Pentagon's deputy assistant
secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict.
Butler did not identify the Al Qaida operatives transferred from Camp
Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Saudi Arabia.
More than 90 detainees from
Camp Delta have been released, including one to Spain, identified as Hamad
Abdul Rahman Ahmed. Ahmed will be prosecuted in Spain. Another 12 detainees
were sent to their native Sudan.
"Various factors must be considered before any decision to transfer to a
foreign government is reached, including the threat posed by the detainee,
any law enforcement interest in him or intelligence interest in him, and
whether we can reach appropriate transfer agreements with the foreign
government," Butler said in a Pentagon briefing on Feb. 13. "This is a
complex process."
Butler said one detainee was an Al Qaida operative who had planned to
blow up oil tankers in the Persian Gulf with explosive-laden fishing boats.
He did not elaborate.
"During questioning of the detainees, new information is constantly
revealed, confirmed and analyzed to determine its reliability," Butler said.
"Unfortunately, many detainees are deceptive and prefer to conceal their
identities and actions."
The detainees at Camp Delta have been divided into three categories,
officials said. The first category comprises high-risk detainees who the
Pentagon has determined will either be held or prosecuted. The second
category includes those deemed as medium-level threats who could be
transferred to their native countries for either monitoring, investigation,
detention or
prosecution. The final category is of those detainees who don't pose a
threat and can be released unconditionally.
Officials said Saudi Arabia has been asked whether it is prepared to
prosecute Al Qaida members eligible for transfer to the kingdom. They said
other countries have also been approached whether they would prosecute Al
Qaida detainees at Guantanamo and that an agreement has already been reached
with Russia.
"One of our primary objectives," Pierre-Richard Prosper, State
Department's ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, said at a separate
briefing last week," is to ensure that when the person is sent back, any
threat that he may pose is properly managed so that the person does not
engage in terrorist activities, killing large-scale numbers of people either
in their home country or back here in the United States.
