A/HRC/13/42* page 59 of Defense announced in 2007 and 2008 the transfer of high-value detainees from CIA custody to Guantanamo. 129. On 27 April 2007, the Department of Defense announced that another high-value detainee, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, described as “a high-level member of Al-Qaida”, had been transferred to Guantanamo.222 On the same day, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, stated that the detainee had been transferred to Defense Department custody that week from the CIA although he “would not say where or when al-Iraqi was captured or by whom”. However, a United States intelligence official stated that al-Iraqi “had been captured late last year in an operation that involved many people in more than one country”.223 Another high-value detainee, Muhammad Rahim, an Afghan described as a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was transferred to Guantanamo on 14 March 2008. In a press release, the Department of Defense stated that, “prior to his arrival at Guantanamo Bay, he was held in CIA custody”.224 According to reports in Pakistani newspapers, he was captured in Lahore in August 2007.225 130. The Government of the United States provided no further details about where the above-mentioned men had been held before their transfer to Guantanamo; however, although it is probable that al-Iraqi was held in another country, in a prison to which the CIA had access (it was reported in March 2009 that he “was captured by a foreign security service in 2006” and then handed over to the CIA),226 the Department of Defense itself made it clear that the CIA had been holding Muhammad Rahim, indicating that some sort of CIA “black site” was still operating. B. CIA detention facilities or facilities operated jointly with United States military in battle-field zones 131. Although it is still not possible to identify all 28 of the CIA’s acknowledged high-value detainees, the figures quoted in a memo of the Office of Legal Counsel of 30 May 2005 written by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stephen G. Bradbury227 indicate that the other 222 “Defense Department takes custody of a high-value detainee”, 27 April 2007. Available from http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=10792. 223 “Pentagon: senior Al-Qaeda operative caught”, USA Today, 27 April 2007. Available from www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-27-alqaeda-capture_N.htm. 224 “Defense Department takes custody of a high-value detainee”, 14 March 2008. Available from www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11758. 225 Mark Mazzetti, “CIA secretly held qaeda suspect, officials say”, New York Times, 15 March 2008.Available from www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/washington/15detain.html. 226 Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti, “US relies more on aid of allies in terror cases”, New York Times, 23 May 2009. Available from www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/world/24intel.html. 227 Stephen G. Bradbury, “memorandum re: application of United States obligations under article 16 of the Convention against Torture to certain techniques that may be used in the