Report: Foreign agents questioned Guantanamo prisoners

Apr 25, 2011, 6:22 GMT

Washington - Countries ranging from Russia to Saudi Arabia sent intelligence officers to question Guantanamo detainees over the past years, according to reports in the New York Times and the Washington Post based on leaked documents from WikiLeaks.

The other countries included China, Tajikistan, Yemen, Jordan, Kuwait, Algeria and Tunisia, according to the story posted late Sunday on the Times website.

The leaks, based on detainee assessments written by the Department of Defence between 2002 and early 2009, also described how inmates of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, threatened to kill their interrogators, drink their blood, behead them and eat them in sandwiches.

The US government condemned the publication of the leaks 'of this sensitive information' and said some of the information no longer represented the government's 'current view' of the detainees.

In a statement released to the Times and National Public Radio, the Pentagon and US State Department noted that both administrations of President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W Bush 'have made every effort to act with the utmost care and diligence in transferring detainees from Guantanamo.'

Obama had pledged to close down the Guantanamo prison camp and transfer detainees for prosecution to the US civilian court system, but has since decided not to. More than 600 detainees have been transferred to other countries since the prison opened in 2002.

The Times said the secret documents revealed that most of the 172 remaining prisoners are rated as 'high risk' to the United States and its allies, but that fact has been well established in public comments by government officials.

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