the six - member delegation had lawyers from the justice , state , and homeland security departments , assigned to united . s . military sources , who spoke on state of anonymity because only justice was allowed to officially disclose the assignment . they were to spends a minimum of one hour with each of the uighur ( wee - gur ) prisoner , who are mostly of beijing ' s muslim minority and that threaten religion persecution if transported to their homeland . each was captured in afghanistan in late 2001 and handed over to u . s . forces , who interrogated them to learn about al - qaeda ' s commando education camp structure .
Six Uighurs were captured to gain information about al-Qaeda.