A published report says a new study shows the majority of terror suspects being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, pose a serious security threat to the United States.
The New York Times says the study was conducted by an anti-terrorism center at the U.S. Military Academy in the northeastern state of New York, at the request of the Defense Department. According to the report, 95 percent of suspects held at the U.S. naval base are fighters for al-Qaida, veterans of terrorist training camps, and men experienced with explosives and rocket-propelled grenades.
The results of the study are said to be based on detainee hearings from 2004 and 2005.
It contradicts a separate study conducted last year, which asserts that only eight percent of all detainees had been identified by the military as al-Qaida fighters.
That earlier study was conducted by a law professor at Seton Hall University in the northeastern state of New Jersey who represents Guantanamo detainees.
The U.S. military tribunal system at Guantanamo has come under fire from international civil and human rights groups for holding detainees indefinitely without charge, for not allowing the detainees to have a defense lawyer present, and for not allowing them to examine much of the evidence against them.