WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) - A journalistic investigation into terrorism suspects held at U.S. prison camps around the world found that possibly hundreds had been wrongly imprisoned, McClatchy newspapers said on Sunday.

An eight-month investigation in 11 countries on three continents found that the U.S. wrongfully imprisoned suspects in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of "flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments," a story posted on their website said.

McClatchy said it interviewed 66 released detainees, more than a dozen local officials, primarily in Afghanistan and several U.S. officials and former officials. The investigation also reviewed thousands of pages of U.S. military tribunal documents and other records.

According to their investigation "at least seven (detainees) had been working for the U.S.-backed Afghan government and had no ties to militants, according to Afghan local officials."

"As far as intelligence value from those in Gitmo, I got tired of telling the people writing reports based on their interrogations that their material was essentially worthless," a U.S. intelligence officer said in an e-mail, using the military's slang Guantanamo.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that those held at the high-security prison camp at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can go before U.S. federal judges to challenge their years-long detention. (Reporting by Nancy Waitz, editing by Alan Elsner)

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