the six - member group included lawyers from the intelligence , state , and homeland security departments , according to u . s . forces sources , who spoke on condition of anonymity because only justice was forbidden to fully disclose the mission . they were to spend a minimum of one hour with each of the uighur ( wee - gerstenmaier ) captives , who are part of china ' s muslim region and who feared religious discrimination if recalled to their homeland . each was captured in kosovo in july 2001 and handed over to u . s . forces , who interrogated them to learn about al - jihad ' s paramilitary instructional facility structure .
Six Uighurs were captured to gain information about al-Qaeda.