Top Bush aides directed torture from the White House

Citing unnamed sources, ABC News reported on Wednesday that the National Security Councils Principals Committee met in 2002 and 2003 to review the interrogation of several alleged Al Qaeda members held by the CIA.

ABC reported, The high-level discussions about these enhanced interrogation techniques were so detailed, these sources said, some of these interrogation sessions were almost choreographeddown to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic. Among the enhanced interrogation techniquesa euphemism for torturewas waterboarding, a notorious method that involves the near drowning of the prisoner.

The Principals Committee at that time was chaired by then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. It included Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet, and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

According to ABC, the discussions began after the capture of Abu Zubaydah in the spring of 2002. Earlier this year, the Bush administration officially acknowledged that the CIA had used waterboarding on Zubaydah, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.