A high ranking al-Qaeda member has been in CIA custody over the past 6 months, the agency said on Friday. The fact that he is in U.S. custody was recently made public as he - Muhammad Rahim – was moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Rahim, described as a “high value detainee”, allegedly helped prepare Tora Bora for Osama bin Laden and also took part in arranging his escape from Afghanistan in 2001. He was captured in Lahore, Pakistan about six months ago and handed over to the CIA. The capture of the al-Qaeda member has been kept in secret until he was sent to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

Thirteen other prisoners were moved from the secret prison by the CIA to Gunatanamo Bay along with Rahim, one of bin Laden’s “most trusted facilitators and procurement specialists," as Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman described him.

Details about where Rahim was held until he was moved to Guantanamo Bay weren’t released. When, asked about what interrogation techniques used on the al-Qaeda member, CIA spokesman George E. Little refused to elaborate.

"I cannot characterize what he may or may not have said while in CIA custody. His detention by the CIA was part of a lawful program that has yielded valuable information in the nation's efforts to fight terror," were Little’s exact words.

U.S. President George Bush was pretty clear about the issue of the secret prisons such as that where Rahim was held. The facilities were used and will continue to be used as a very important part of the “war on terror” process. Bush defended the facilities as a vital tool in the counterterrorism efforts. In summer, Bush signed an executive order that restates the CIA’s authority to use “more efficient” interrogation techniques than those included in the U.S. Army Field Manual handbook, which contains 19 interrogation techniques.

The most controversial interrogation techniques used by the CIA to deal with hardened terrorists who have been trained to resist the methods mentioned in the U.S. Army Field Manual handbook are waterboarding, sensory deprivation, temperature extremes, extended forced standing.