Donald H

Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, said today that the military was planning to hold many prisoners from Afghanistan at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. But Mr. Rumsfeld said there were no plans to hold the tribunals there. He said Guantánamo was "the least worst place we could have selected" as a detention area. An official said one difficulty in finding an overseas base for the tribunals was that many military installations, especially those in Europe, were leased from countries that prohibit the death penalty. Holding the trials on ships remains an option, although another official said that was being thought of as a last resort.