Top Dems Briefed on Interrogations in 2002

In the escalating war of words over the Central Intelligence Agency's admission that it destroyed videotapes of terrorist interrogations, officials said Sunday that key members of Congress were briefed on the interrogation program and techniques in a series of briefings that took place in 2002. Among the group of select Congressmen present at the briefings was current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

Officials familiar with the briefings told the Washington Post that no formal objections were raised to the information presented. Former CIA Director Porter Goss said that, on the contrary, there was general approval expressed by lawmakers from both parties. "Among those being briefed, there was a pretty full understanding of what the CIA was doing. And the reaction in the room was not just approval, but encouragement," he said.

Congressional Democrats have called for an investigation into the destruction of the tapes, which the CIA says was done to protect the identity of the interrogators, and which are said to have contained the videotaped waterboarding of at least one detainee. Both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are investigating the matter, with CIA Director Michael Hayden set to appear before the Senate committee this Tuesday. Democrats want to determine if the destruction of the tapes was an attempt to cover up illegal activity on the part of CIA interrogators and shield the Bush Administration from politically damaging revelations about the interrogation program.

However, when presented information about the program, including the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique, Democrats did not object. One official who spoke to the Post recalled that the briefers were specifically asked if the techniques were "tough enough." A spokesperson for Speaker Pelosi said that she did recall being briefed on the program but described the techniques discussed as in the planning stages, not yet in practice. Pelosi's office did acknowledge that she did not raise any objections at the time.

The information appears to support Bush Administration claims that certain members of Congress were fully briefed on terrorist interrogations. The law requires the CIA to inform Congress of covert activities but allows for briefings on highly sensitive matters to be restricted to the leaders of both parties in both houses and the ranking members on the intelligence committees. The Bush Administration expanded the list of members informed about the interrogation program after details of it became public in 2005. By that time, the CIA says it had already stopped using water boarding. If that assertion is indeed true, then the debate on that subject has been largely academic.