US to take DNA from al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners

American authorities are planning to take DNA from al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners in a bid to create a databank of their genetic fingerprints, it was revealed today.

The plan has been put forward by federal authorities frustrated that they are unable to properly identify many of the thousands of detainees in American and Afghan hands, including the 300 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

And they also hope to find the accomplice they believe helped the alleged shoe bomber, 28-year-old Briton Richard Reid, by tracing DNA from hairs found in his footwear.

The moves comes amid mounting frustration that despite weeks of interrogations in Cuba many of the prisoners remain a mystery, the New York Times reported.

American authorities hope that by passing DNA information to the countries where the prisoners come from they can find their true names and may be led to other al-Qaida cells.

A senior official told the newspaper: ‘‘We don’t know who these guys are, and we need to find out.

‘‘DNA profiling of suspected terrorists would assist in their identification.’’

Interrogations have moved at such a slow pace because the prisoners, five of whom are British, know each other only by aliases.

Translators have been told to try to listen for their accents or dialects to identify their country of origin, then photographs and fingerprints are sent to the countries to aid identification.

But so far only around 36 of the 300 men being held at the so-called Camp X-Ray have been questioned in depth about their backgrounds.

A total of up to 8,000 Taliban and al-Qaida are also being held prisoner by Afghan troops at the request of the US and they may be included in the DNA samplings.

The New York Times reported that despite the frustration, American interrogators have learned that many of the detainees saw Osama bin Laden after the September 11 terror attacks and believed he moved his headquarters to the caves of Tora Bora after the strikes.

Prisoners have also told investigators that Reid, who allegedly attempted to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami shortly before Christmas, had close links with, so-called, 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui.

Moussaoui is facing execution over allegations he conspired with the 19 dead September 11 kamikaze attackers to hijack planes and fly them into American targets.

Prisoners have told their American captors that the two men were at an Afghan al-Qaida training camp in Khalden and gravitated towards each other because they knew little Arabic.

Both men were known to have worshipped at the same mosque in Brixton, south London, but are thought to have done so at different times.