The United States has denied a team of investigators sent by Yemen access to its naval base at Guantanamo Bay where they wanted to question Yemeni detainees, a senior official said Saturday.
"The investigators did not make it to Guantanamo. They flew back home from London after US authorities notified us that they would not be allowed to meet the detainees for the time being," the official told AFP.
He declined to say why the team had been turned back however added, on condition of anonymity, that it would "go to Guantanamo in the next few weeks after obtaining US authorization."
Sanaa announced on February 20 that a team of investigators had departed for Cuba to take part in the interrogation of Yemenis held at the Guantanamo base.
The weekly September 26, mouthpiece of Yemen's defense ministry has reported that 32 Yemenis were amongst the 300 Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners from the Afghan war held in "Camp X-Ray".
September 26 reported in January that Yemeni investigators wanted to obtain information from the detainees likely to help the probe in the October 2000 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in the southern Yemeni port of Aden which killed 17 US sailors.
Washington suspects the Cole bombing was masterminded by Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on the United States and head of the al-Qaeda network. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
