Overall, the chart describes 40 briefings over a seven-year period during which CIA and other U.S. intelligence officials described the agency's interrogation program to senior lawmakers.
The records were requested by congressional Republicans, who have accused Democrats on Capitol Hill of hypocrisy for expressing outrage in recent weeks over the CIA's use of harsh interrogation methods after the release of Justice Department memos describing them in detail.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, May 09, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 38 words Type of Material: Correction
Interrogation techniques: An article in Friday's Section A about how congressional leaders were briefed on the CIA's use of severe interrogation methods on Al Qaeda suspects referred to Nancy Pelosi as House majority leader. She is House speaker.
Porter J. Goss, former House Republican and former CIA director, wrote last month in an opinion piece that he was "slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as 'waterboarding' were never mentioned." Goss described the lawmakers' claims as "a disturbing epidemic of amnesia."
Goss attended the September 2002 briefing with Pelosi in what the records indicate was the first time congressional officials were told about the so-called enhanced interrogation program. At the time, Goss was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and Pelosi was the panel's ranking Democrat.
In other entries on the chart, waterboarding is specifically mentioned. In February 2003, for example, the records indicate that Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) were told about the agency's interrogation methods "in considerable detail," including "how the waterboard was used." Roberts was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, and Rockefeller was ranking Democrat. In recent years, Rockefeller has been an outspoken critic of the CIA's interrogation program.
"Sen. Rockefeller was briefed but was not presented with the full picture, nor was he told critical information that would have cast significant doubt on the program's legality and effectiveness," said Jamie Smith, a Rockefeller spokeswoman. "With more information coming to light in 2004, Sen. Rockefeller became increasingly concerned about the program, and in early 2005 he launched a full-scale effort to investigate. The Senate Intelligence Committee's review is ongoing, and he believes it is critically important that there be a full accounting of the Bush administration's interrogation policies."
The records indicate that Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) and other lawmakers were told in early 2003 that the CIA intended to destroy videotapes of interrogation sessions. Harman, then the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has said that she sent a letter to the agency at the time warning that doing so was a "bad idea." The tapes were destroyed in 2005, after the scandal over detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Although the records describe early briefings on the CIA program, they also indicate that the operation was shielded from the vast majority of lawmakers for years. It wasn't until September 2006, four years after Goss and Pelosi initially were briefed, that the agency's interrogation program was described to the full House and Senate intelligence committees.
--
greg.miller@latimes.com
Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this report.
