CIA's top counterterrorism official was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad,

The CIA's 'Black Sites': "What are we going to do with the secret prisoners who cannot be tried in our courts? | By Nat Hentoff | 02/26/06 'Village Voice'

The CIA's top counterterrorism official [Robert Grenier] was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation, and using forms of torture such as 'waterboarding,' [making a prisoner believe he is about to be drowned] intelligence sources have claimed. The Sunday Times, London, February 12

For more than three years, I've been reporting on what has been increasingly, but fragmentarily, revealed about secret CIA prisons around the world. On September 17, 2001, the president, in a classified order, gave the CIA these 'special powers' (as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales agreed during his confirmation hearings).

These 'black sites'—as they are called in CIA, White House, and Justice Department files— escaped attempted congressional oversight until December 2005. But in the National Defense Authorization Act, the Senate finally called for regular reports on where those prisons are, what plans there are for the ultimate release of their prisoners, and 'a description of the interrogation procedures used.' Ted Kennedy and John Kerry introduced the resolution. " ...