Louder than a bomb

"The US has stopped running its global network of secret prisons, CIA director Leon Panetta has announced.

"CIA no longer operates detention facilities or black sites," Mr Panetta said in a letter to staff. Remaining sites would be decommissioned, he said.

The "black sites" were used to detain terrorism suspects, some of whom were subjected to interrogation methods described by many as torture.

President Obama vowed to shut down the facilities shortly after taking office.

The Bush administration allowed the CIA to operate secret prisons on the territory of allied countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, according to media reports.

During his first week as president, Mr. Obama ordered the closure of the black sites, as well as the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, as part of an overhaul of US detainee policy.

Key issue

In his letter, Mr Panetta also stressed that the CIA no longer employed controversial "harsh interrogation techniques", like "waterboarding", or simulated drowning, which have been widely condemned."

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"We don't do inappropriate or inhumane things anymore!," said the agency that has trained death squads, listened in on our phone convos, protected war criminals, distributed narcotics locally and globally, and tortured humans.