WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.

The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release, even to the detainees' own attorneys, "could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage." Terrorists could use the information to train in counter-interrogation techniques, according to documents submitted to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton on Oct. 26.

The battle over legal rights for terrorism suspects detained for years in CIA prisons centers on Majid Khan, a 26-year-old former Catonsville, Md., resident who was one of 14 high-value detainees transferred in September from the "black" sites to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights is seeking emergency access to him.

The government, in trying to block access to the detainees, effectively asserts that the detainees' experiences shouldn't be shared with the public.

Because Khan "was detained by CIA in this program, he may have come into possession of information, including locations of detention, conditions of detention, and alternative interrogation techniques that is classified," an affidavit from CIA Information Review Officer Marilyn A. Dorn states.