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Afghan detainees interrogated in Cuba

Army military police officers escort a detainee at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, earlier this month.  


(CNN) -- Authorities at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have started interrogating the 158 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters at Camp X-Ray for the first time since they arrived from Afghanistan, a Pentagon official told CNN.

The interrogations have taken place over the past 48 hours.

The official also said the detainees would be allowed to re-grow their hair and beards, in keeping with Muslim practices, as long as they do not pose a health or security risk.

Any new detainees arriving at Camp X-Ray will be shaved before they leave Afghanistan as an initial health and security precaution, officials said.

Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai supported President Bush's decision not to grant the detainees prisoner of war status.

"The people that are detained in Guantanamo, they are not prisoners of war, I see it in very clear terms, gentleman and ladies," Karzai said in a speech to the National Press Club Tuesday. (Full story)

"They're criminals, they brutalized Afghanistan, they killed our people, they destroyed our land."

Meanwhile, Pakistan authorities searched Tuesday for a missing U.S. reporter after an obscure group sent photos to news organizations of the man shackled and with a gun to his head.

The group identifying itself as "the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty" claimed to be holding Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, 38, "in very inhumane conditions."

The group said Pearl was kidnapped in retaliation for the detention of Pakistanis at Camp X-Ray. (Full story)

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Latest developments

• Attorneys for Zacarias Moussaoui, the man accused of conspiracy in the September 11 attacks, have asked to depose a man taken into custody shortly afterward as a material witness. They said Jean Tony Antoine Oulai might have information that could clear Moussaoui. Oulai was taken into custody on September 14 after flight manuals and a stun gun were found in his luggage at a Florida airport. He denies any involvement in the attacks.

• The U.S. Army has deployed Apache helicopter gunships to Afghanistan. The attack helicopters are primarily used for "force protection" for the 101st Airborne Division, which has taken over from Marines in Afghanistan. The Marines used Cobra gunships for the same purpose while they were in Afghanistan.

• The U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter that made a "hard landing" Monday in eastern Afghanistan was carrying soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division to a forward operating base near Khowst. Fourteen soldiers were injured when the helicopter rolled over while attempting to land. Military personnel from other helicopters involved in the mission rescued them. (Full story)

• Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's interior minister has asked the United States to return 100 men who are housed at Guantanamo Bay. The Saudi government said it wants to subject the men to Saudi justice. U.S. officials have said they would return detainees to their home countries with the assurance they would face justice there but not until U.S. authorities have finished interrogating the captives. (Full story)

• The Pentagon says 24 specially trained National Guard units are now ready to respond to emergencies involving weapons of mass destruction. Seven new units were certified recently. The "weapons of mass destruction civil support teams" will support civil authorities in responding to chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological incidents within the United States.

• The Justice Department is calling for security improvements and a beefed-up law enforcement presence for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Attorney General John Ashcroft asked for the improvements after touring Olympic and related sites earlier this month. (Full story)

• Sixteen people, including 12 Port Authority of New York and New Jersey workers, face charges in the theft of money intended for victims of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office said. Most allegedly posed as victims of the attacks, she said. (Full story)

• One of the most critically injured victims of the World Trade Center attacks was released Tuesday from a New York burn center and will be transferred to a rehabilitation hospital. Elaine Duch, 49, of Bayonne, New Jersey, was working on the 88th floor of the north tower when the first hijacked plane hit. She suffered burns over 77 percent of her body and severe smoke inhalation. (Full story)

• Terry Anderson, a journalist who was taken hostage while reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, in 1985, said the United States should not negotiate but must communicate with the Pakistani group that claims to be holding a Wall Street Journal reporter. "The U.S. government will not negotiate with these people, and I have to say I don't believe they should," Anderson said. "This is not a matter of negotiations. It is a matter of communications." (Full story)

• An Islamic charity accused by federal officials of providing financial assistance to terrorists went to court Monday to overturn a freeze on its assets imposed last December. The Global Relief Foundation filed a suit in federal court in Chicago alleging government officials have not made a sufficient legal case to block assets, seize property and documents or interfere with the group's operations. (Full story)

• A federal judge Monday set an April trial date for Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, a Sudanese man the government considers the highest-ranking aide to terrorist Osama bin Laden in U.S. custody. Salim is charged with attempted murder in the stabbing of a jail guard November 1, 2000. He also faces terror conspiracy charges related to the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. (Full story)

• Investigators tracing the movements of suspected shoe bomber Richard Reid cannot be certain that e-mailed instructions he received came from Pakistan, CNN has learned. (Full story)

• The Pentagon on Monday defended last week's Special Forces raid against a compound north of Kandahar, saying it was a legitimate target. Fifteen suspected Taliban were killed and 27 captured. Since the raid, local Afghans have claimed innocent people were killed and that the compound was just a weapons and ammunition collection site.



 
 
 
 



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