Senate Intel Committee Wants Legal Review of CIA Torture

Walter Pincus for WaPo reports: The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has demanded a legal review of the CIA's detention and interrogation program for terrorism suspects as part of its version of the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill. In its report on the measure yesterday, the panel acknowledged that the CIA's harsh interrogation methods have led to the disclosure of the identifies of terrorists and have disrupted plots, but it questioned whether such methods are "the best means to obtain a full and reliable intelligence debriefing of a detainee." The panel's chairman, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), said that "significant legal issues about the CIA detention and interrogation program remain unresolved," along with questions about the agency's decision to operate under rules different from those governing military and law enforcement officers.