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CNN Live At Daybreak

FBI Director Tours Guantanamo Bay Base

Aired March 04, 2002 - 05:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: FBI Director Robert Mueller is back in Washington after touring the U.S. Navy base on Cuba, where the Afghan war detainees are being held.

As CNN's Bob Franken reports, he addressed the way the U.S. is seeking more information about those detainees.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): FBI Director Robert Mueller wanted a first-hand look at Camp X-ray. And after his three hours of meetings and tours, he not only confirmed reports investigators are seeking DNA samples from detainees here and in Afghanistan, but also said that they had already been taken from the Guantanamo prisoners.

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: In the processing, we have taken DNA samples.

FRANKEN: Mueller was uncertain, he said, whether DNA had been taken from prisoners in Afghanistan.

MUELLER: For a number of the detainees in Afghanistan, we do not have specific information as to their backgrounds or even true names. And to the extent that those detainees are released at some point in time and are involved in acts in the future, we want to be able to identify them.

FRANKEN: It has been a problem at Camp X-ray too, where FBI agents and interrogators from various intelligence agencies have been questioning detainees for several weeks, but usually getting lies from the prisoners about their real name, their backgrounds, almost everything. Have they gotten anywhere?

MUELLER: We are getting information from our questioning of these detainees, yes. Thank you very much.

FRANKEN (on camera): With that, Director Mueller headed back to Washington, after a first-hand look at Camp X-ray, a small part of the terrorism puzzle that investigators are trying to understand, but clearly a vital one.

Bob Franken, CNN, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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