Kenya suspect moved to Guantanamo

Whitman said Malik was held at a US military facility, not a secret CIA prison, and was interviewed by US law enforcement before being sent to Guantanamo over the weekend.

 

“He is a one of these support figures in the al-Qaeda East Africa network. He knows some very important people” Bryan Whitman, Pentagon spokesman

Abdul Malik is the first detainee to be transferred to Guantanamo since September 2006, when 14 al-Qaeda suspects arrived from secret US prisons overseas.

 

Whitman said Abdul Malik was considered “dangerous” but not of “high-value”, a term US officials use for captured suspects who have a significant effect on al-Qaeda operations and are capable of providing high-quality intelligence.

 

“He is a one of these support figures in the al-Qaeda East Africa network. He knows some very important people,” another unnamed American official said.

 

Kenya has rounded up scores of suspected Islamist fighters and supporters since a war ended a six-month Islamist rule of Mogadishu and southern Somalia.