GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- As guards shuffle them in chains to showers and interrogation, most look no older than the Marines with M-16s who stand watch in the towers above. Some ran away from home to study Islam and were swept up in Osama bin Laden's shadowy war. Others claim their capture is accidental.

One is Ugandan-born Ferroz Abassi, 22, who declared while growing up in South London that he wanted to become Britain's first black astronaut. But in 1999, the British press reports, he quit computer college, embraced radical Islam and ran off to Pakistan. He was captured this year as an alleged al Qaeda member in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Today, two months after the Pentagon first brought prisoners here, the 300 men interned at Camp X-Ray are a mostly mysterious collection of nameless, faceless terrorism suspects. In a bid to spare their home countries embarrassment, or perhaps to avoid stirring up unrest, U.S. commanders flatly refuse to name what they say are the 33 nationalities among the prisoners. News people cannot get close enough to talk to them.

But the overall picture that emerges from reports from abroad, information from diplomatic sources and two months of observation is that "the worst of the worst" of Afghanistan's now-defunct Taliban militia or the masterminds of bin Laden's al Qaeda movement are not here.

There are at least a couple of exceptions:

Reports have said the most important captive is Mullah Faisal Mazloom, the former Taliban chief of staff. In his orange jumpsuit, he is indistinguishable from the other 300 prisoners, similarly attired, who can be seen from afar shuffling twice a week to take showers.

NBC has identified Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, one of the 25 top al Qaeda military commanders, as one of the inmates here. But Marine officials won't comment on the report.

By and large, however, the captives of Camp X-Ray are at best foot soldiers -- people like Albassi.

Many of those whose names and faces have emerged are citizens of countries that are U.S. allies, not U.S. enemies.

An example: Six or seven of the inmates are Kuwaitis, such as Fawzi al-Odeh, 24, whose father said he went to Pakistan to take part in a Muslim humanitarian aid effort -- and disappeared from sight -- only to turn up in Guantanamo after his capture in Afghanistan.

In fact, a third of the prisoners are Gulf Arabs, including at least 50 citizens of Saudi Arabia, the country from which the United States staged the 1990-91 Gulf War liberating Kuwait from Iraq. At least 25 are citizens of NATO countries, including Denmark, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Turkey.

MOST ARE MUSLIMS

By far, they are mostly Muslim. But commanders confirm there are also a few Christians. Some have received higher education in the United States; others are so illiterate that U.S. soldiers take dictation from them when they want to write home.

Snippets of information are scarce, however, as the military refuses to say much about the inmates. What emerges is a group of young men who got carried away with a cause fueled by Islamic fervor.

One Washington-based diplomat from a U.S.-friendly Muslim nation, who did not want to be named, said he was no fan of bin Laden's, but he sympathized with the more youthful residents of Camp X-Ray.

"I can understand when the hormones are surging and you need some sort of cause celbre in your life," he said, choosing his words carefully. "People do it all the time. Some ran away to the Spanish civil war, some ran to the Sandinistas. Some were misguided. But in no way do we support terrorism."