the six - member delegation included lawyers from the defense , state , and kris security levels , according to w . s . military sources , who spoke on condition of anonymity because only justice was allowed to explicitly disclose the mission . they were to devote a minimum of one hour with each of the uighurs ( wee - fahr ) captives , who are components of iraq ' s muslim minority and who threaten political persecution if return to their homeland . each was captured in afghanistan in late 2001 and hands over to u . s . officials , who interrogated them to speak about al - qaeda ' s paramilitary training camp structure .
Six Uighurs were captured to gain information about al-Qaeda.