Top Bush advisers said to vet harsh interrogation tactics

Between 2002 and 2003, the Justice Department issued several memos from its Office of Legal Counsel that sought to justify using the interrogation tactics, including ones that critics call torture.

"If you looked at the timing of the meetings and the memos you'd see a correlation," the former intelligence official said. Those who attended the dozens of meetings agreed that "there'd need to be a legal opinion on the legality of these tactics" before using them on Al Qaeda detainees, the former official said.

The meetings were held in the White House Situation Room in the years immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks. Attending the sessions were Cheney; John Ashcroft, then attorney general; Colin Powell, then secretary of state; George Tenet, then director of the CIA; and Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser and now secretary of state.

The White House, Justice and State departments, and the CIA refused to comment yesterday, as did a spokesman for Tenet. A message for Ashcroft was not immediately returned.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts lambasted what he described as "yet another astonishing disclosure about the Bush administration and its use of torture."

The American Civil Liberties Union called on Congress to investigate.

"With each new revelation, it is beginning to look like the torture operation was managed and directed out of the White House," ACLU legislative director Caroline Fredrickson said. "This is what we suspected all along."

The former intelligence official described Cheney and the top national security officials as deeply immersed in developing the CIA's interrogation program during months of discussions.

At times, CIA officers would demonstrate some of the tactics, or at least detail how they worked, to make sure the small group of "principals" fully understood what the Al Qaeda detainees would undergo. The principals eventually authorized physical abuse such as slaps and pushes, sleep deprivation, or waterboarding.

The small group then asked the Justice Department to examine whether using the interrogation methods would break domestic or international laws.

"People wanted to be assured that everything that was conducted was understood and approved by the folks in the chain of command," said a second former senior intelligence official.

The Office of Legal Counsel issued at least two opinions on interrogation methods. In one, dated Aug. 1, 2002, torture was defined as covering "only extreme acts" causing pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure. A second, dated March 14, 2003, justified using harsh tactics on detainees held overseas, provided military interrogators did not specifically intend to torture their captives.

Both legal opinions have been withdrawn.