Bush Transfers 14 Detainees to Guantánamo, Confirms Existence of Secret Prisons

On September 6, 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush announced that 14 of the most notorious terror detainees had been transferred from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) custody to the U.S. Guantánamo Bay detention center and given protection under the Geneva Conventions. President Bush also acknowledged the existence of CIA detention camps. Bush announced that the U.S. government would advise the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of the men’s detention and allow the Committee to meet with them. He also said that the detainees would have access to attorneys and would be presumed innocent. The ICRC, which welcomed the transfers, announced that it planned to visit the detainees. However, it questioned whether other prisoners might still be held clandestinely, condemning the practice. UN groups have criticized holding incommunicado detainees, often called “ghost detainees.”