the six - member delegation included advocates from the justice , state , and defense security agencies , loyal to u . s . naval sources , who spoke on condition of anonymity because only intelligence was allowed to fully disclosed the mission . they were to spend a limited of one hour with each of the uighur ( wee - gur ) prisoners , who are part of china ' s muslim minority and who avoid civil repression if returned to their homeland . each was capture in afghanistan in june 2001 and handed over to u . s . troops , that interrogated them to learn about al - taliban ' s paramilitary training camp structure .
Six Uighurs were captured to gain information about al-Qaeda.