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| George W. Bush speaks to audience in Atlanta, Ga., Thursday |
Mr. Bush spoke to an audience in the southeastern U.S. city of Atlanta, Georgia Thursday, in a speech he billed as a progress report in the war on terror.
He said efforts to fight terrorism since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States have resulted in two countries that once harbored terrorists - Iraq and Afghanistan - now working with the United States to eliminate it.
He also said the government has implemented data networks making it easier for law enforcement and intelligence officers to share information. He said that move was meant to eliminate what he called a "wall" between federal agencies that kept them from sharing concerns about suspects who later participated in the September 11th attacks.
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| In this June 26, 2006 file photo, reviewed by US military officials, a detainee holds onto a fence as a US military guard walks past at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba |
In the same speech, Mr. Bush urged Congress to approve the creation of military commissions to try the detainees. The government considers them "enemy combatants."
Mr. Bush said one of the transferred men is Khalid Sheik Mohammed - the alleged mastermind of the September 11th attacks on the United States in 2001.
Other suspects moved to Guantanamo include alleged September 11th plotter Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, and two members of Indonesia's al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, Hambali and Zubair.
A U.S. Defense Department spokesman said their interrogations may continue at Guantanamo, but under new rules that protect all U.S. military detainees from abuse.
European Union officials are demanding that the locations of the CIA detention centers be made public.