Qaeda Suspect Held by CIA, Moved to Gitmo

A top al-Qaeda suspect who has been in secret CIA detention for at least 6 months was moved this week  to Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said yesterday. Muhammad Rahim, described as a "tough, seasoned, jihadist," is said to have been a close associate of Osama bin Laden's who helped the al-Qaeda leader escape from Afghanistan as the Americans hunted him after 9/11, Reuters reports.

Rahim is the first prisoner in a year officials have acknowledged holding in the CIA program, where "enhanced" interrogation techniques are used, the New York Times notes; his interrogation has been appropriate "given his past and the continuing threat he presented to American interests," a Pentagon spokesman said. Rahim is also the first prisoner to be moved to Gitmo since last August. (More Afghanistan stories.)