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Bill Hemmer: Bagram base scene of interrogations

CNN's Bill Hemmer

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN (CNN) -- Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees being held by the U.S. military at Bagram air base north of Kabul, Afghanistan, are providing valuable information to investigators, sources said Sunday.

CNN's Bill Hemmer, who has been at the airport near Kandahar, where U.S. forces are holding most detainees, filed the following report:

HEMMER: Military sources say right now they're holding suspected al Qaeda terrorists who had "plans to travel to the United States one day and kill Americans." A direct quote. They say there's a direct connection to al Qaeda fighters in custody and planned terrorist attacks in the United States but apparently "those planned events did not come off for whatever reason, possibly the events of September 11."

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Bagram, north of Kabul, increasingly looks like a centerpiece for interrogations. We now know in recent days the man accused of running the terrorist training camps here in Afghanistan, Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi, was moved to Bagram off of the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea.

It was a week ago, you might recall, Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former ambassador to Pakistan, was also taken to Bagram. One source saying, "There are a lot of bad boys in Bagram, but there are some who are just lost in the sauce" as well -- a reference to some detainees who are providing little or no information to U.S. investigators.

Also, investigators are scouring evidence that al Qaeda was possibly working in concert with other countries to develop chemical and biological weapons. However, they tell me there is still no proof that they ever fully developed those weapons and succeeded, and they're still looking for evidence of a possible connection to Iraq.

As for the detainees again, [we're] still learning a bit more every day. We know now some have "simply broken down," some don't know where they are -- whether it's Bagram, Kandahar or even possibly Cuba -- unless they have direct contact and conversation with some of the other prisoners and detainees in these various areas.

On the overall investigation, I am told, "This will take a long time to complete the puzzle, but we're making progress every day." Three hundred ninety-one are still here in Kandahar. It's possible another group will be shipped out to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, possibly again Sunday night, and again we're told the next group may be larger than the original group of 20 that was shipped out to Cuba here Thursday evening.