CIA chief admits uncertainty on rules

WASHINGTON -- Porter J. Goss, the director of central intelligence, said on Thursday that he could not assure Congress that the CIA's methods of interrogating suspected terrorists since Sept. 11, 2001, had been legally permissible under federal laws prohibiting torture.

Under sharp questioning at a hearing before 3the Senate Armed Services Committee, Goss sought to reassure lawmakers that all interrogations "at this time" are legal and that no methods currently in use constituted torture. But he declined, when asked, to make the same broad assertions about practices used over the last few years.

"At this time, there are no 'techniques,' if I could say, that are being employed that are in any way against the law or would meet -- would be considered torture or anything like that," Goss said in response to one question.

When he was asked several minutes later whether he could say the same about techniques employed by the agency since the campaign against al-Qaida expanded in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks in the United States, he said, "I am not able to tell you that."

He added that he might be able to elaborate after the committee went into closed session to take classified testimony.

Asked to clarify his remarks, the CIA issued two statements, but no official would agree to be named because of the highly classified subject matter.

"The agency complies with the laws of the United States, and the director's testimony consistently stated that," said a CIA spokeswoman. "None of his comments were intended to convey anything otherwise."

Asked about the legality of practices in the past, a government official said: "The CIA has always complied with the legal guidelines it received from the Department of Justice in regard to interrogation."

At the hearing, Goss acknowledged that there had been "some uncertainty" in the past among CIA officers about what interrogation techniques were specifically permitted and prohibited. A legal memorandum relaxing the limits on interrogation was issued in 2002 but subsequently repudiated by the administration in 2004.

Goss said he believed that the uncertainty had been resolved, and that CIA employees have recently been "erring on the side of caution" in choosing what techniques to employ.

Copyright C 2005 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.