Bush Anti-Terror Policies Get Reluctant Revisit

Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, told ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos yesterday that "those who broke the law need to be held accountable."

But by confining any criminal investigation to the narrow issue of CIA interrogators who operated outside legal boundaries, and by ruling out the possibility of criminal charges for lawyers and policymakers, the Obama administration has given itself an argument for forestalling a congressional probe likely to be far messier and more public than a traditional law enforcement inquiry.

Legal experts and former intelligence officials also raised questions about the likelihood of criminal indictments against interrogators. They point out that evidence may have been tainted on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that only one U.S. contractor has been convicted of a crime related to detainee mistreatment.

On another front, key Democrats suggested that the Bush White House may have violated laws by urging the CIA to keep secrets from congressional overseers.

Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, confirmed that the CIA had withheld information from Congress about a covert counterterrorism program at the request of then-Vice President Cheney.

"This is a big problem, because the law is very clear," Feinstein said on "Fox News Sunday."

CIA Director Leon E. Panetta informed Congress about the covert program -- the nature of which has never been publicly revealed -- in two classified briefings last month. He said he had only recently learned of the nearly eight-year-old program, and he said that past CIA managers had kept details from Congress at Cheney's request.

"If the intelligence committees had been briefed, they could have watched the program," Feinstein said. " . . . That was not the case, because we were kept in the dark." She said the withholding of covert information is "something that should never, ever happen again."

The CIA's failure to inform Congress was brought to light last week in letters by several congressional Democrats, including House intelligence committee Chairman Sylvestre Reyes (Tex.). The New York Times, citing unidentified officials, first reported that Panetta had told lawmakers about Cheney's role in keeping the program secret.

The revelations have heightened pressure on Obama to begin investigating an array of Bush administration practices. Although Obama halted many practices, his senior advisers have been wary of embracing a congressionally chartered "truth and reconciliation" commission to get to the bottom of the events.

Congressional Republicans decried the idea of any inquiry. "Democrats have twisted the facts to fit this piece of fiction and shown their disregard for our most sensitive national security secrets," said Kit Bond (Mo.), ranking Republican on the Senate intelligence panel.

Even Feinstein urged caution, saying that an ongoing Senate intelligence inquiry should be finished before a decision is made on the need for further investigation.

Republicans and some former high-ranking intelligence officials question whether the CIA was ever obliged to brief Congress on the program. Former agency officials have described it as a technically oriented intelligence-collection effort unrelated to terrorism suspects or the terrorist-surveillance program that came to light in 2005.

The program began shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and was authorized by Bush as part of a highly classified directive on Sept. 26 of that year. The directive granted the CIA blanket authority to attempt to kill or capture al-Qaeda operatives.

Former intelligence officials said the program was aimed at enhancing the agency's ability to carry out the goals of the directive. The Wall Street Journal reported that the initiative was intended to help the CIA capture or kill al-Qaeda operatives.

A White House spokesman had no comment.