With hoods over their heads and shackles on their arms and feet, 20 al Qaeda and Taliban detainees were flown out of Afghanistan on a U.S. military aircraft yesterday, the first of hundreds of prisoners from the war expected to be sent to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for interrogation and possible trial.
The U.S. Marine base at the Kandahar airport was hit by small arms fire around the time the Air Force C-17 cargo plane carrying the detainees took off at about 9 p.m. local time (11 a.m. EST). Marines returned fire, and no one was injured, officials said.
Pentagon officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that a large contingent of military police -- outnumbering the prisoners two to one -- was on the flight armed with stun guns and authorized to sedate any prisoners, if necessary. The detainees were to be chained to their seats for the entire flight, they said.
"After September 11th, a little paranoia is a good thing," said Steve Lucas, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, which oversees the base at Guantanamo Bay.
Concerned about the possibility of attack, defense officials declined to disclose many details of the detainees' movement, which will include a stop at a military base in Europe for a transfer to an Air Force C-141 before continuing to Cuba. The detainees are expected to arrive in Cuba today.
"If our intelligence is correct, there are people with suicidal-murderous intentions still at large," Lucas said. "I don't want them to know when that aircraft will be passing through Caribbean airspace."
The 20 prisoners, whose identities have not been made public, are among 371 al Qaeda and Taliban detainees in U.S. custody who are expected to be brought to Guantanamo Bay, where they will be housed in rudimentary cells being built at the base. John Walker, an American captured in November while fighting for the Taliban, remains aboard the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command said last night.
At Guantanamo Bay yesterday, troops were making final preparations for the arrival of the prisoners. "Obviously, as they get closer, it's getting a little more intense," said Army Lt. Col. Bill Costello, a spokesman for the task force responsible for the detainees.
In Pakistan, across Afghanistan's eastern border, meanwhile, recovery efforts continued at the site of the crash of a KC-130 Hercules plane that killed seven Marines on Wednesday.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said there were no indications that hostile fire was involved in the crash, which occurred on a mountain near an airfield at Shamsi, in southwestern Pakistan. "They have no evidence that it was anything other than a crash into that ridge line," Rumsfeld said.
The tanker plane was carrying bladders of fuel at the time of the accident, contributing to the total destruction of the aircraft. Rescue teams have reported that only the plane's tail section is visible, a defense official said.
"The fireball occurred, according to the best evidence we have, as it hit the ground, not before it hit the ground," Rumsfeld said.
Army mortuary workers have been sent to the site, and teams are still working to recover the bodies, officials said.
The Central Command, which is overseeing the Afghan war, said the plane carrying the detainees had taken off from Kandahar about 10 to 15 minutes before the gunfire erupted and was not threatened. "It did not have to take any evasive action, and at no time was the plane in danger," said Marine Maj. Brad Lowell, a command spokesman.
According to witnesses and an Army spokesman at the Kandahar base, however, the gunfire appeared to have begun as the plane was taxiing for takeoff.
Military spokesmen said it was not known if the attack was related to the movement of the detainees. "The Marines on the ground are characterizing it as probing fire," Lowell said.
Amnesty International issued a statement yesterday objecting to the prisoners' treatment. In a letter sent to Rumsfeld earlier this week, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan said "the hooding of suspects in detention generally may constitute cruel treatment." The organization also said that sedating prisoners for other than medical purposes would be a breach of international standards.
Pentagon officials ordered several news organizations not to transmit pictures of the hooded detainees being moved onto the plane, citing concern that such images may be violations of the dignity of the prisoners under international laws governing the treatment of prisoners. The news organizations agreed not to transmit the images until military officials give them permission.
A defense official said the detainees held aboard Navy ships in the Arabian Sea are frequently hooded and shackled, particularly when they are moved.
Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters that the prisoners are being "treated humanely in accordance with the Geneva Convention," which sets out the rights and responsibilities of war prisoners and their guards.
The first flight is being viewed by the Pentagon as a trial run for the transfer of the remainder of the detainees in U.S. custody to Cuba. If things go well, the number of detainees will be increased to 30 per flight, a defense official said.
Some of the detainees are expected to face military tribunals, officials said. Rumsfeld indicated yesterday that some of the detainees are being held to see if more information arises that would implicate them.
"After you've gone through that first interrogation, it's best to wait a bit and see what other kinds of information comes up from other people, from computers, from various other types of intelligence gathering," Rumsfeld said. "You might arrest somebody with pocket litter that connects that person to one of the people you're interrogating."
Staff writer Sue Anne Pressley at Guantanamo Bay and correspondent Karl Vick in Kandahar contributed to this report.
Soldiers with the Army's 101st Airborne Division take cover as gunfire breaks out near the U.S. Marine base at the Kandahar airport in Afghanistan.
