U.S. Prisoners in Cuba Run the Gamut

June 13 -- While Americans puzzle over the story of Jose Padilla, a Brooklyn-born hoodlum who was accused this week of plotting to explode a "dirty bomb" on behalf of Osama bin Laden, the reality is, there are many more like him.

Americans already know about John Walker Lindh, the privileged student from a San Francisco suburb who was found among the huddled masses of angry jihadis in the dusty Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif after an uprising in which a CIA agent was killed.

Lindh is being held at a secret location, but still more apparently prodigal sons are to be found at the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where U.S. forces are holding approximately 300 people accused of being members of bin Laden's al Qaeda organization and/or the fundamentalist Taliban.

The bulk of those at Camp X-Ray, like most militant Muslims around the world, are young men from disenfranchised backgrounds in the Middle East. However, at least a dozen were brought up in the West, with rights and privileges unknown to many of their cellmates.

U.S. authorities have limited access to the prisoners, but fragments of their identities have emerged through media reports over the course of their six-month captivity.

At least a handful are from Britain, France and Australia. Countries as distant as Sweden and Denmark are also believed to have contributed to the mix.

A Deadly Vow

By far, the best-known of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay is David Hicks, a high school dropout from Australia who became a globe-trotting soldier-of-fortune.

Hicks, 26, was captured in early December 2001 after the Northern Alliance's victory in the Afghan city of Kunduz. He reportedly was trying to escape in a beard and tribal garb, but his blue-green eyes gave him away.

In January, he was flown from Afghanistan to Cuba, and on the flight over, media reports say he developed his reputation as a prisoner to beware of.

He managed to slip out of his cuffs, and had to be duct-taped to his seat for the remainder of his flight. Upon arriving in Cuba, he reportedly issued an ominous vow: "Before I leave here, I am going to kill an American."

Hicks was by no means raised a bloodthirsty Islamic militant. He was born in Adelaide, also known as the "City of Churches," which locals point out was settled by pious Lutherans instead of the convict laborers who established many of Australia's other cities.

However, Hicks has seen some hardship in his life. He was born to a working-class family and his parents divorced when he was 10. He left home and school at 14, spent time in a boys' home, and on farms as a ranch hand.