WASHINGTON, Dec 17: The Central Intelligence Agency has maintained at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a secret detention facility for valuable Al Qaeda captives that has never been mentioned in public , The Washington Post reported on Friday.

Citing unnamed military officials and intelligence officers, the newspaper said the buildings used by the CIA are shrouded by high fences covered with thick green mesh plastic and ringed with floodlights.

The facility, built within the Camp Echo complex, has housed detainees from Pakistan, West Africa, Yemen and other countries under the strictest secrecy, the report said.

"People are constantly leaving and coming," the paper quotes one US official as saying. But it was unclear whether the facility is still in operation today, The Post pointed out.

Most international terrorism suspects held by the Defence Department are guaranteed access to the International Committee of the Red Cross and now have the right to challenge their imprisonment in courts.

However CIA detainees are held under separate rules and far greater secrecy, according to The Post. Under a presidential directive and authorities approved by administration lawyers, the CIA is allowed to capture and hold certain classes of suspects without accounting for them in any public way and without revealing the rules for their treatment, the report said.

Current and former US intelligence officials say the agency holds the most valuable Al Qaeda leaders and many mid-level members with knowledge of the group's logistics, financing and regional operations, the paper said. -AFP