[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] Tuesday called on US President George W. Bush in a public letter [text, PDF] to account for so-called "ghost prisoners" whose whereabouts and identities have been kept secret since September when Bush acknowledged [JURIST report] the existence of secret prisons operated by the the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] outside the US where high-value terror suspects [DNI backgrounder, PDF] were detained. Fourteen high-profile suspects [DNI profiles, PDF], including alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile] were transferred to the Defense Department's military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], but HRW says the whereabouts of 38 other suspects who are believed to be held in CIA prisons are currently unknown.

HRW also released a supporting report [text; press release] Tuesday in which a former CIA detainee, Marwan Jabour, recounted his experiences in a secret CIA prison. AFP has more.