“Despite intense interrogations and investigations, U.S. authorities have yet to identify any senior Al Qaeda leaders among the nearly 600 terrorism suspects from 43 countries in U.S. military custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials say. …Although some of the information has been helpful, officials said, the interrogations at the high-security prison camp have not provided the kind of details needed to identify new Al Qaeda cells or to detect specific terrorist plots. ‘It’s not roll-up-plots, knock-your-socks-off-kind of stuff,’ said a U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said the 598 inmates flown to the U.S. Navy base in eastern Cuba since January [2002] are mostly ‘low-and middle-level’ fighters and supporters, not ‘the big-time guys’ high enough in the command and control structure to help counter-terrorism experts unravel Al Qaeda’s tightknit cell and security systems.”
– Bob Drogin, “No Leaders of Al Qaeda Found at Guantanamo,” The Los Angeles Times, Aug. 18, 2002