WASHINGTON - The United States has told how its Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba has become its single best source of intelligence on al-Qaeda's recruiting, bomb-making and interest in weapons of mass destruction.
A Defense Department report, released as the Pentagon finds itself fending off legal challenges to the indefinite detention of "war on terror", tells how doctors, pilots, lawyers, engineers and translators are among the approximately 550 detainees.
Although consisting mainly of broad assertions about the intelligence value of the Guantanamo operation, the report, posted on a Defense Department website last month, said 10 percent of the inmates have university degrees or obtained higher education, in many cases at US colleges.
"Among these educated detainees are medical doctors, airplane pilots, aviation specialists, engineers, divers, translators and lawyers," said the report.
One detainee received a graduate degree in avionics management at Embry Riddle Aviation School in Arizona, another has a masters degree in petroleum engineers.
"Another detainee, who has threatened guards and admits enjoying terrorizing Americans, studied at Texas A and M for 18 months and had acquaintances in the US," it said.
The report said many Guantanamo detainees likely would have risen to prominent positions in al-Qaeda's leadership, and as a group provided a "unique insight into the type of individuals likely to become participants, recruiters and leaders for the Islamic extremist movements."
It said information provided by detainees have generated 4,000 intelligence reports.
"The information includes their leadership structures, recruiting practices, funding mechanisms, relationships, and the cooperation between terrorist groups, as well as training programs, and plans for attacking the United States and other countries," it said.
"The Joint Task Force, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (JTF-GTMO) remains the single best repository of al-Qaeda information in the Department of Defense," it said.
US intelligence learned about techniques for building improvised explosive devices that have turned up Chechnya and more recently in Iraq from Guantanamo detainees who were explosives trainers.
Some detainees were highly skilled engineers who could make sophisticated bombs with explosives made from household items, while others were low-level jihadists with only enough training to make a grenade from a soda can, it said.
Captured detainees frequently had a type of watch favored by al-Qaeda bomb makers because it can be used to time a detonation over a 24-hour period, it said.
It said detainees were either actively involved in planning terrorist attacks or had participated in attacks in Europe, the United States or Central Asia.
"Detainees have also provided information on individuals connected to Al-Qaeda's pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons," it said.
"Exchanges with European allies have supported investigations of Islamic extremists in several European countries," it said.
Among the detainees is one believed to be the 20th hijacker in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the report said. Although not named in the report, he was believed to be Mohammad al-Khatani, a Saudi who was deported from the United States before the attack.
According to the report, he identified more than 20 detainees as bodyguards of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who had trained with him at a camp in Afghanistan known as al-Farouq.
Another detainee identified 11 other inmates as Bin Laden bodyguards and another who was the Al-Qaeda leader's spiritual advisor, it said.
More than 25 detainees have been identified as al-Qaeda "facilitators" who provided money, documents, travel or safe houses for recruits, it said.
More than a dozen detainees had up to 10,000 dollars in cash when apprehended; four had between 10,000 and 25,000 dollars worth of cash; and two had the cash equivalent of more than 40,000 each when they were captured, according to the report.
At least 10 detainees freed from Guantanamo rejoined the fight against US forces, the report said. Some have since been killed in combat.
04/18/2005 18:34 GMT