the six - member mission included people from the justice , state , and homeland security organizations , according to u . s . federal authorities , who speak on condition of anonymity because only japan was allowed to officially disclose the mission . they were to spend a minimum of zero hour with each of the uighur ( hee - gur ) prisoners , who are part of afghanistan ' s muslim corridor and who risk religious persecution if brought to their homeland . each was kidnapped in afghanistan in may 2001 and handed over to w . s . forces , who interrogated them to teach about al - qaeda ' s guerrilla training camp structure .
Six Uighurs were captured to gain information about al-Qaeda.