CIA detention program remains active: U.S. official

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino would not comment on the program, saying, "We haven't been in the habit of doing a press release every time we have a prisoner."

She also declined to comment on specific interrogation techniques but said, "The policy of the United States is not to torture."

The Times said the Justice Department's secret 2005 memo differed sharply from a public legal opinion in December 2004 that declared torture "abhorrent."

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, in a letter on Thursday to the Justice Department requested the legal opinions cited in the newspaper article. Rockefeller said he had repeatedly asked for the classified opinions and the Justice Department had never provided a formal response.

House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, wrote separately to the acting attorney requesting the documents.

Citing unnamed officials, the Times said the 2005 memo for the first time explicitly authorized painful physical and psychological tactics including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the 2004 opinion "remains binding on the executive branch" but that he could not comment on any later, nonpublic "legal advice."

Bush ordered in July that CIA interrogators comply with international Geneva Conventions against torture.

Massimino said the order and the administration's legal opinions appear to leave much room for harsh interrogations.

(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria, James Vicini and Thomas Ferraro)