SPACE WIRE
Suspected terrorists captured in Iraq not to be held at Guantanamo: Pentagon
WASHINGTON (AFP) Apr 16, 2003
 The Pentagon said Wednesday it does not intend to hold suspected terrorists captured in Iraq at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"There are no plans at this time," spokesman Victoria Clarke told a Pentagon briefing.

She was responding to a question about the fate of Palestine Liberation Front chief Abu Abbas, the alleged mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro, who was captured by US forces in Baghdad on Monday.

The United States said two weeks ago that prisoners taken in the Iraq war would not be held at Guantanamo, where some 660 prisoners, most of them suspected al-Qaeda members captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan, are in detention.

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