CIA waterboarding 'endorsed'
2008-10-15 08:29
Washington - The Bush administration
explicitly endorsed the use of waterboarding and other harsh
interrogation methods against al-Qaeda suspects in a pair of
secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004, The Washington Post
reported on Wednesday.
The previously undisclosed classified memos were requested
by then CIA Director George Tenet more than a year after the
start of the secret interrogations, the newspaper reported,
citing administration and intelligence officials familiar with
the documents.
A White House spokesperson had no comment on the report.
According the newspaper, intelligence officials sought
cover from the White House because they were worried about a
possible backlash if details of the interrogation programme
became public.
Justice Department lawyers signed off on the the agency's
interrogation methods beginning in 2002, but senior CIA
officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never
endorsed the program in writing, the Post reported.
Repeated requests by the CIA chief for a paper trail
reflected growing worries within the agency that the
administration might later distance itself from decisions about
the handling of captured al Qaeda leaders, the Post said,
citing former intelligence officials who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
The officials told the newspaper Tenet first pressed the
White House for written approval in June 2003 during a meeting
with members of the National Security Council.
A few days later, Tenet received a brief memo conveying the
administration's approval for the CIA's interrogation methods,
the officials were cited as saying.
Tenet made a second request for written approval in June
2004, after the public outcry over the Abu Ghraib prison
scandal, the Post said.
Administration officials confirmed the existence of the
memos, but neither they nor former intelligence officers would
describe the still classified documents in detail, the
newspaper reported.