Top Bush aides oversaw torture sessions
According to an ABC report, top Bush aides, including Condi Rice, micromanaged the torture of terrorist suspects from the White House basement.
Discussions on torture were so detailed, that some interrogation sessions were virtually choreographed by a White House advisory group, ABC's sources told reporters in a program aired on Wednesday.
The torture advisory group included then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then-secretary of state Colin Powell, then-CIA director George Tenet and then-attorney general John Ashcroft and Vice President Dick Cheney ABC's sources said.
The advisory group also approved the use of "combined" interrogation techniques -- using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time -- on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said.
As the national security adviser, Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House Situation Room and were typically attended by most of the principals or their deputies, reports Jan Crawford Greenburg and a text version posted on ABC site by Greenburg, Howard L. Rosenberg and Ariane de Vogue.
At least one member of the club had some qualms. ABC reports that Ashcroft "was troubled by the discussions.
He agreed with the general policy decision to allow aggressive tactics and repeatedly advised that they were legal. But he argued that senior White House advisers should not be involved in the grim details of interrogations, sources said.
"According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: 'Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.'"
Source: www.presstv.ir
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