President Bush publicly admitted the existence of a secret CIA detention program for the first time in a speech at the White House Wednesday.
The admission came as the president announced the transfer of 14 al-Qaeda suspects from secret CIA prisons to the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. According to Bush, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, was among the prisoners. Several other ""key architects"" of al-Qaeda terrorism were also transferred to Guantanamo from the secret prisons, Bush said.
Before Wednesday, the Bush administration had refused to confirm reports of secret CIA prisons around the world. The Washington Post first reported on the prisons in 2005, and U.S. relations with Europe have been strained ever since, with widespread allegations of torture.
Bush denied that the CIA tortured Mohammed, al-Qaeda's third-highest ranking member at the time of his 2003 capture. However, Bush did say interrogations of Mohammed were ""tough.""
According to the president, information gleaned from interrogations in the CIA prisons played a role in the capture of every senior al-Qaeda member now held by U.S. authorities.
""These are dangerous men, with unparalleled knowledge about terrorist networks and their plans of new attacks,"" Bush said. ""The security of our nation and the lives of our citizens depend on our ability to learn what these terrorists know.""
It remains to be seen how the 14 suspected terrorists will be tried after their transfer to Guantanamo. In June, Bush's original plan to use military tribunals was struck down by the Supreme Court as a violation of U.S. and International Law.
