President Bush has acknowledged for the first time the CIA has been operating a secret network of overseas prisons. Bush made the admission Wednesday as he ordered 14 prisoners previously held by the CIA to be transferred to Guantanamo Bay where they could be tried by a military tribunal.

• President Bush: “Some may ask: Why are you acknowledging this program now? There are two reasons why I’m making these limited disclosures today. First, we have largely completed our questioning of the men — and to start the process for bringing them to trial, we must bring them into the open. Second, the Supreme Court’s recent decision has impaired our ability to prosecute terrorists through military commissions, and has put in question the future of the CIA program. ”

The transferred prisoners include alleged 9/11 mastermind Khaled Sheik Muhammad. Bush said the CIA is no longer holding any detainees but that the secret prisons may be re-opened. He denied the U.S. ever uses torture but admitted the CIA has used what he described as alternative procedures to force some prisoners to talk. Bush also urged Congress to authorize his administration’s revised rules for military tribunals and to amend the War Crimes Act. The president said the new laws are needed because of the Supreme Court’s ruling in June the administration’s military commissions to try detainees were illegal. Commenting on the proposed changes, John Yoo, the former Justice Department official who helped develop the tribunals, told the Wall Street Journal: “It does not look like the procedures for these commissions differ in any significant way from the rules already in place before… The only difference is that [the president] is seeking Congress’s explicit support.”