U.S. soldier still missing at Gitmo
From Mike Mount (CNN Washington Bureau)
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Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Foraker
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A soldier assigned to guard detainees from the war on terrorism remained missing Friday afternoon as U.S. military and Coast Guard personnel searched for him on the naval base and in the surrounding waters of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The guard, Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Foraker, 31, of Logan, Ohio, was declared missing Tuesday afternoon after he had not been seen for several hours and an initial search turned up some of his civilian clothes and wallet outside the perimeter of his barracks, called Fort America.
Foraker was one of the hundreds of soldiers assigned to the joint task force guarding the 598 suspected Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners held in the high-security detention facilities known as Camp Delta.
He arrived on the remote military outpost in February and was due to leave in November, according to a Southern Command spokesman.
"We do not believe there is foul play involved with other personnel on the base or with the detainees Foraker kept watch over," said Lt. Col. Bill Costello, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami.
Soldiers, Coast Guard ships and helicopters are engaged in an ongoing search of the 17-square-mile base and surrounding ocean but have found no sign of the soldier.
About 1,800 additional military personnel are on the naval base for the sole mission of guarding and interrogating the detainees.
Foraker's disappearance marks the first time a U.S. soldier has gone missing during the mission to guard the detainees.
