U.S. & World

WASHINGTON (CBS News) ― President George W. Bush on Wednesday acknowledged the existence of previously secret CIA prisons around the world and said 14 high-value terrorism suspects -- including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks -- have been transferred from the system to Guantanamo Bay for trials.

He said the "small number" of detainees that have been kept in CIA custody include people responsible for the bombing of the warship USS Cole in 2000 in Yemen and the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in addition to the 2001 attacks.

"It has been necessary to move these individuals to an environment where they can be held secretly, questioned by experts and, when appropriate, prosecuted for terrorist acts," Mr. Bush said in a White House speech with families of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks making up part of the audience. "These are dangerous men, with unparalleled knowledge about terrorist networks and their plans of new attacks. The security of our nation and the lives of our citizens depend on our ability to learn what these terrorists know."

The announcement from Mr. Bush is the first time the administration has acknowledged the existence of CIA prisons, which have been a source of friction between Washington and some allies in Europe. The administration has come under criticism for its treatment of terrorism detainees. European Union lawmakers said the CIA was conducting clandestine flights in Europe to take terror suspects to countries where they could face torture.

"Today the administration finally recognized that the protections of the Geneva Convention should be applied to prisoners in order to restore our moral authority and best protect American troops," said Sen. John Kerry, who lost to Mr. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. "Today's shift in policy follows the sad legacy of five years during which this administration abused our Constitution, violated our laws, and most importantly failed to make America safe."

The president's announcement, which the White House touted beforehand and asked to be televised live on the networks, comes as Bush has sought with a series of speeches to sharpen the focus on national security two months before high-stakes congressional elections.

The president successfully emphasized the war on terror in his re-election campaign in 2004 and is trying to make it a winning issue for Republicans again this year.

Mr. Bush said the Central Intelligence Agency program has involved such suspected terrorists as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, believed to be the No. 3 al Qaeda leader before he was captured in Pakistan in 2003; Ramzi Binalshibh, an alleged would-be Sept. 11, 2001, hijacker; Abu Zubaydah, who was believed to be a link between Osama bin Laden and many al Qaeda cells before he was also captured in Pakistan, in March 2002.

The former al Qaeda bosses were secretly flown to Guantanamo on Labor Day and immediately placed in cells segregated from the rest of the terrorist inmates. Now that they're in Guantanamo Bay, the al Qaeda leaders will be allowed Red Cross visits and treated like other prisoners. Asked how they fared during their years of secret captivity, one official told CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart, "They look better now than when we caught them."

The list also includes Riduan Isamuddin, known additionally as Hambali, who was suspected of being Jemaah Islamiyah's main link to al Qaeda and the mastermind of a string of deadly bomb attacks in Indonesia until his 2003 arrest in Thailand.

Defending the program, the president said the questioning of these detainees has provided critical intelligence information about terrorist activities that have enabled officials to prevent unspecified attacks, including with airplanes, within the United States.

CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen says this is a "bold move" by the administration and "a big step toward resolving the fate of these high-level terror detainees who have been held in legal limbo now for years."

Other attacks thwarted through intelligence gathered in the program include a planned strike with an explosives-laden water tanker on U.S. Marines at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, an attack with car and motorcycle bombs on the U.S. consulate in Karachi, and a plot to fly passenger planes into London's Heathrow Airport or Canary Wharf, Mr. Bush said.

Mr. Bush would not detail interrogation techniques used through the program, saying only that they are tough but do not constitute torture. He did use language that suggested its nature, saying the CIA turned to an "alternative set of procedures" that were successful after Zubaydah and others had stopped providing information.

"This program has helped us to take potential mass murderers off the streets before they have a chance to kill," the president said.

A senior administration official said that fewer than 100 people have been detained under the life of the CIA program, refuting allegations that perhaps thousands have been held in secret prisons. With the transfer of the 14 detainees to Guantanamo, the CIA is no longer holding any suspects, the administration official said. He added, however, that the administration wants the program to continue.

The president said the 14 key terrorist leaders, including Mohammed, Binalshibh, and Zubaydah, that have been transferred to the U.S. military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay would be afforded some legal protections consistent with the Geneva conventions.

"They will continue to be treated with the humanity that they denied others," Mr. Bush said.

Mr. Bush also laid out his proposal for how trials of such key suspected terrorists â€" those transferred to Guantanamo and already there â€" should be conducted, which must be approved by Congress. Mr. Bush's original plan for the type of military trials used in the aftermath of World War II was struck down in June by the Supreme Court, which said the tribunals would violate U.S. and international law.

Also Wednesday, a new U.S Army manual was published, banning torture and degrading treatment of prisoners. And, for the first time, the manual specifically mentions forced nakedness, hooding and other procedures that have become infamous since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The manual explicitly bans beating prisoners, sexually humiliating them, threatening them with dogs, depriving them of food or water, performing mock executions, shocking them with electricity, burning them, causing other pain and a technique called "water boarding" that simulates drowning.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)