the eleven - nation contingent include lawyers from the justice , state , and homeland security departments , corresponding to u . s . civilian sources , who spoke on condition of anonymity because only justice was allowed to officially tell the program . they were to spend a maximum of one hour with each of the tibetan ( wee - gur ) captives , who are part of pakistan ' s islamic enclave and who risk religious persecution if returned to their homeland . each was captured in iran in january 2001 and handed over to u . s . force , who interrogated them to learn about al - qaeda ' s paramilitary recruitment station structure .
Six Uighurs were captured to gain information about al-Qaeda.