Definitive Account Of Briefings Still Elusive

With House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer by her side, Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a news conference yesterday. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
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Even more deeply divergent are the recollections of Bob Graham (D-Fla.), the former senator who chaired the Senate intelligence committee in 2002, and Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), the panel's ranking Republican. In interviews this week, Graham said waterboarding was never mentioned by CIA briefers in their meeting. But Shelby said that he and Graham were specifically told that the technique had already yielded valuable information.

The CIA participated in more than 2,100 congressional briefings and meetings during the 110th Congress -- an average of more than 20 sessions a week. But the agency declined to discuss details of specific briefings, and a spokesman yesterday again dismissed suggestions that the agency gave lawmakers a misleading portrait of the interrogations.

"The CIA takes seriously its responsibility to provide information to the United States Congress," said the spokesman, George Little.

On Sept. 4, 2002 -- the House's first full day back in session after a six-week recess -- Pelosi and Goss were summoned to the ultra-secure intelligence committee room on the fourth floor of the Capitol. No electronic devices are allowed to be taken into the room, which is so small some lawmakers have dubbed it "the padded cell." Only lawmakers and staff with high-level clearances are allowed past a Capitol Police officer who stands guard.

CIA records show the session was led by officials from its counterterrorism center, which at the time was run by Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., who later left the CIA amid questions about the destruction of videotapes of detainees being waterboarded. Intelligence officials did not consider the briefing "time sensitive" but simply an effort to bring the lawmakers up to speed on what was labeled a "highly sensitive collection activity," according to former intelligence officials. Shelby and Graham would not be briefed for another 23 days.

Two officials present during the briefings in 2002 said the talks were overshadowed by fears of more terrorist attacks. "It was wartime crisis mode, and all the chatter at the time was about a 'second wave,' " said one congressional official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the briefings were classified. "The next attack was supposed to be even bigger, and everyone was taking it very seriously."

Against that backdrop, lawmakers from both parties pressed the CIA for details about what it was learning from a high-value captive: Abu Zubaida, whose real name is Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein. There was little, if any, questioning about how the information was obtained, according to the two participants.

"No one in either party was questioning interrogation tactics," said the congressional official. "People from [both] parties were saying, 'Do what it takes.' Their questions were, 'Do you have the authorities you need?' and 'Are you doing enough?' "

Members of the intelligence committees in both parties say briefings can be a congressional version of a cat-and-mouse game. "If you don't ask the right question, you won't get the answer," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). Newcomers to the panels often fail to "do their homework enough to ask the right question," noted Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), a former chairman.

The House committee recently moved into more spacious, technologically advanced quarters in the Capitol Visitor Center. Each lawmaker's space has an individual monitor, and an internal instant messaging system allows committee staffers to alert lawmakers to messages from outside the secure room.

Some lawmakers, particularly those not on the intelligence committees, can become annoyed at the restrictions placed on them if they seek classified information, such as a bar on discussing the findings with their own staff members or with lawmakers who have not received the briefings.

For example, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said Treasury Department officials called him in June 2006 about an anti-terrorism issue relating to his panel's jurisdiction that was about to break in the news. Told he would be forbidden from criticizing the administration's actions after receiving a briefing, Frank recalled in a recent interview, "I said goodbye."

However, because he was told about the basic subject matter, Frank said he is barred from even confirming what the issue was.

Staff writers Perry Bacon Jr. and Walter Pincus and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.