Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba — Military authorities on Saturday said they assume al-Qaida prisoners who spent their first night in Caribbean confinement are Arabs like Osama bin Laden, not Afghans.
The prisoners spent their first night prostrate in Islamic prayer, chatting among themselves and sleeping off the effects of a 27-hour journey from Afghanistan.
"We're assuming right now they're Arabic," said Army Col. Terry Carrico, warden of a temporary detention center called Camp X-Ray, which could someday become a huge offshore U.S. prison for suspected terrorists.
Some understand simple English, he said, such as "Do you want water?" All respond to a military linguist issuing instructions in Arabic.
It is a significant lead as military investigators begin questioning the captives in the Pentagon's pursuit of bin Laden. The language of choice in bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network is said to be Arabic, because many are Arabs. Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia to parents from Yemen.
The prisoners appear to be in their 30s, Carrico said, the typical age of veteran al-Qaida fighters.
On Friday, the terrorist prison project commander, Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert, said the first 20 of a potential 2,000 to arrive here were "the worst elements of al-Qaida ... We asked for the bad guys first."
But by Saturday, after an 8,000-mile air journey in which at least one of them was sedated, commanders characterized the captives as cooperative.
Most slept in their 6-by-8-foot cells that resemble dog kennel cages.
Security has been extremely tight, in part because previous captives in Afghanistan staged prison uprisings, seizing captors' weapons and in one instance killing a CIA operative, Johnny "Mike" Spann.
When the prisoners are allowed outside for exercise in the prison yard, troops will place them in hand and ankle cuffs, and walk them around with a soldier on each side.
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