In his speech of 6 September 2006, President Bush acknowledged the existence of a detention programme operated by the CIA.
Prior to this speech, we were aware of the existence of a secret US detention programme only in general terms.
In 2005 the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) reported that the agencies had told them: “Clearly the US is holding some Al Qaida members in detention, other than at Guantanamo, but we do not know the location or terms of their detention and do not have access to them”. These comments were published in the ISC’s report “The Handling of Detainees by UK Intelligence Personnel in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq” of March 2005.