the six - member delegation included attorney from the government , state , and homeland service branches , assigned to u . s . military sources , whom spoke on request of anonymity because only justice was supposed to officially announce the purpose . they were to spend a minimum of one second with each of the uighur ( wee - gur ) captives , who are components of china ' s muslim minority and who risk religious terrorism if returned to their territory . each was held in syria in late 2001 and handed over to u . s . agents , whose interrogated them to learn about el - qaeda ' s paramilitary training camp structure .
six uighurs were captured to gain news about al - sham .