On 6 September 2006, US President George W Bush announced the transfer of 14 men from secret
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) custody to military detention at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo
Bay in Cuba. This was the first time that the US program of clandestine interrogation and detention,
long an open secret, had been publicly acknowledged. Although the President noted that no-one was
then being held by the CIA, he emphasized that the secret detention program would “continue to be
crucial”. Indeed, the transfer of a 15th so-called “high value” detainee, ‘Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, from CIA
custody to Guantánamo in April 2007 demonstrated the continuing operation of the CIA’s program.
In June 2007, President Bush issued an executive order effectively re-authorizing the CIA’s use of
secret detention and interrogation.1 That order remains in force.