First Afghan prisoners arrive at U.S. naval base in Cuba

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL STATION, Cuba -- A U.S. Air Force plane carrying 20 prisoners from Afghan-istan touched down at this remote U.S. military outpost Friday, bringing the first of hundreds who are to be detained here for questioning.

In Washington, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed the arrival of the plane carrying the 20 detainees. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld noted at a Pentagon news conference that it was "four months to the day" since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Security was extraordinarily high for the transfer of the al-Qaida and Taliban members to prevent any bloody uprising. Rumsfeld said one of them was sedated during the course of the flight.

Shortly before 12:55 p.m., reporters saw a military C141 cargo plane circle over the Guantanamo Bay and touch down on the airstrip inside the base on the eastern tip of Cuba.

The landing was seen by about two dozen journalists on hill overlooking the strip about a mile away on the Cuban side.

The plane was one of several that arrived at the base Friday but was the first met by American troops -- about 20 of them -- and several light armored vehicles. They were waiting on the tarmac for the plane to arrive.

About a half hour after the plane stopped, two white buses pulled up alongside it, one on either side.

In Afghanistan, al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners have risen up against their captors several times in bloody revolts. One of them, outside the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, left a CIA agent dead. Officials were taking no chances with the move to Guantanamo.

The prisoners left the Marine base at Kandahar airport in Afghanistan wearing shackles and hoods.

In individual cells

At Guantanamo, the detainees were to be taken to another side of the camp, where they would be photographed, fingerprinted and issued orange jumpsuits, Navy spokesman Lt. Bill Salvin said.

At their detention camp, known as Camp X-ray, the prisoners will be isolated in temporary, individual cells with walls of chain-link fence and metal roofs, where they will sleep on mats under halogen floodlights. The camp is surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers.

The Pentagon barred journalists from taking pictures of the prisoners on their arrival in Cuba. Authorities gave no reason, but the Geneva Convention says prisoners of war must be protected "against insults and public curiosity."

The departure of the 20 leaves 361 prisoners at the base in Kandahar -- 30 more were brought there after Thursday's flight -- and 19 at the air base in Bagram, north of Kabul.