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Boat Boyz Bagram Bound
Ten men captured recently aboard boats carrying drugs in the Persian Gulf area have been taken for questioning to a U.S. prison in Afghanistan, a U.S. defense official said Monday. They are held on Bagram Air Base north of the Afghan capital of Kabul and are being questioned about suspected connections to Osama bin Ladenâs al-Qaida terrorist network, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Only very special guests are invited to Bagram. The U.S. military has more than 100 people in custody at the Bagram facility, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said recently. Gitmo is mostly a holding area, Bagram is where people go to, well, no one really knows. Itâs a black hole. Three of the 10 men transported to Bagram were captured Dec. 15 by the U.S. Navy aboard a small wooden vessel called a dhow, which the Navy said was carrying nearly two tons of hashish in the Persian Gulf. The Navy said some of the crew were suspected of having al-Qaida connections. The seven others were captured in a raid Dec. 20 on two other dhows that were sailing in the northern Arabian Sea. U.S. officials said one of the dhows was transporting heroin and the other had methamphetamines. The Navy said at the time that it was investigating potential al-Qaida connections to the drug-running operations. Australian, British, New Zealand and U.S. air forces tracked the two dhows for two days after receiving intelligence information gleaned from the Dec. 15 seizure. Posted by: Steve 2003-12-29 |
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