U.S. not saying what will happen to Guantanamo prisoners

WASHINGTON -- A half-year after the United States began taking terror suspects to the Guantanamo Bay prison, the total has reached 564 from some 36 countries, and the Bush administration has made little apparent headway in deciding what to do with them.

The Russians want to take home their three citizens and prosecute them. The Swedes wonder if their young countryman is really a hardened terrorist or just a misguided follower of Islam.

"It appears they have just put them down there and thrown away the key," said David Henderson, a spokesman for lawyers representing 11 of 12 Kuwaiti prisoners.

"The only thing we know for sure is they have five" French nationals, said Remi Marechaux of France's embassy in Washington. "We are waiting to see what the United States does with them."

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said in February that authorities were interrogating prisoners to build legal cases as well as gather intelligence.

But three months after announcing rules for military tribunals, there's no sign officials will try anyone. And the Justice Department has announced no plans for civil trials of inmates at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

Officials at the departments of Justice, Defense and State involved with the operation all refused requests for interviews.

In crisis mode

But others who have been briefed about Guantanamo paint a picture of an operation still in crisis mode -- with officials worried primarily about finding more terrorists and preventing attacks. That means painstakingly collecting and crossmatching information, including from prisoners, other countries and the mountains of documents, computer discs and other items found in al-Qaida hide-outs in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Prosecution is not the priority.

Rumsfeld has said detainees could stand before tribunals or other courts, be sent home for prosecution or be kept indefinitely at Guantanamo.

At least a dozen governments say they'd like to prosecute their own citizens. Several say they're unsure how that would be done because American authorities haven't shared information about possible charges or evidence.

"We have requested since early on that we want them to be turned over to us," said Saudi Arabia's embassy spokesman Nail al-Jubeir of the estimated 100 Saudi detainees. "We are still waiting."

Little foreign pressure

Sixteen foreign delegations have visited Guantanamo to identify citizens, check on their welfare and question them. Britons went three times to visit the six British nationals held. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia haven't been given access yet.

But most countries aren't pressing to repatriate prisoners.

Not privy to evidence or possible charges, some foreign officials say they're unsure prisoners can be tried under their laws. Some countries also fear that trials at home could cause trouble.

Cato Institute constitutional expert Robert A. Levy wonders whether there will be any prosecutions from Guantanamo. Most men there aren't top al-Qaida or Taliban and the real purpose of incarcerating them in the first place was to gather intelligence, he said.

The few high-level figures in Osama bin Laden's terror network who've been captured aren't at Guantanamo, but at undisclosed locations. It's unclear what will be done with them, either, after officials finish interrogations.

Asked whether America might soon release prisoners not of intelligence value, Rumsfeld said he tended to think not.