US: Construction work has begun on new prison facilities at the huge US military base at Guantanamo in Cuba to prepare for the reception of up to 2,000 former Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.
About 1,500 extra US troops, ranging from military police to construction specialists and medical personnel, are being sent to the island to build and guard the facility which is likely to be able to receive initially up to 100 prisoners inside a week.
Security at the jail will be at the highest level - no-one wants a repeat of the rising at Mazar-e-Sharif.
"We are cognisant of the incident that took place in Mazar-e-Sharif," Lieut Cmdr Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Sunday.
"Many of these people have demonstrated their determination to kill others, kill themselves or escape."
The base has been a controversial part of a contested US presence on the island but two senators who visited Havana recently say that the Cuban President, Dr Fidel Castro, who has publicly condemned the September 11th attacks, had not raised objections to its use as a prison.
Currently the US is holding some 346 former fighters - 300 at their base in Kandahar, 21 at Bagram, 16 at Mazar-e-Sharif, and a further 9 on a ship in the Arabian Gulf.
The latter group includes the 20-year-old US citizen, Mr Michael Walker, whose fate is being considered by the Attorney General.
Speculation that he will be charged with treason is receding, not least because of the onerous burden of proof, but officials have hinted repeatedly that they are considering other capital charges.
The Department of Defence is also working on protocols for determining how the other prisoners will be dealt with.
All are likely to face prolonged interrogation and then the most senior will certainly face trial, probably in front of special military tribunals.
Although the department is refusing to specify how many of the captives are senior al-Qaeda or Taliban, the bulk of those being held are belived to be al-Qaeda, many of them non-Afghan.
Such trials may be held at the Charleston Naval Weapons Stattion in South Carolina which also has facilities for up to 280 military prisoners.
In Cuba, the prisoners will be treated in accordance with international standards for military prisoners and have access to the Red Cross and other non-governmental organisations, the Pentagon says.
The Cuban government says the base should have been closed and returned to Cuban control decades ago.
Cuba's President Castro held talks yesterday with six US congressmen, discussions one US lawmaker said "reflected a new attitude" between the Cold War enemies, seeking to find ways to reduce the hostile rhetoric. Most of the congressmen, the latest in a flood of visiting American politicians to Cuba, later met about a dozen of the island's leading dissidents, who say they are seeking peaceful changes to Dr Castro's one-party system.
