WASHINGTON — When Central Intelligence Agency interrogators used waterboarding and other harsh techniques on Qaeda suspects, agency rules required detailed records of each method used, its duration and the names of everyone present, according to one of three heavily redacted government documents made public on Thursday.
The documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, add details to the picture of the exchanges between the C.I.A. and the Justice Department over the legal status of the C.I.A.’s methods. For decades before 2002, the United States had considered several of the methods to be illegal torture.
The rule requiring interrogation logs is from a three-page memorandum signed on Jan. 28, 2003, by George J. Tenet, then the C.I.A. director, that appears to lay out rules for harsh interrogations. A one-page attachment has a space for C.I.A. officers in the program to sign, stating, “I have read and understand and will comply with” the rules.
The document says that “unless otherwise approved by headquarters,” C.I.A. officers “may use only Permissible Interrogation Techniques,” which include “(a) Standard Techniques and (b) Enhanced Techniques.”
“In each interrogation session in which an Enhanced Technique is employed,” the documents say, “a contemporaneous record shall be created setting forth the nature and duration of each such technique employed, the identities of those present,” and, apparently, other requirements.
Jameel Jaffer, a lawyer for the A.C.L.U. who has tracked interrogation practices, said the detailed interrogation logs were likely to be sought by lawyers for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the admitted planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, and other Qaeda suspects facing military tribunals. Several lawyers have said they will seek to challenge statements from their clients by showing that they had been obtained by torture.
Another document is one dated Aug. 1, 2002, from the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department that is believed to describe in detail the methods the C.I.A. was using on Abu Zubaydah, a Qaeda logistics specialist captured in Pakistan in 2002. A memorandum released earlier, signed on the same date by the head of the counsel’s office, Jay S. Bybee, is already public and said that no method was torture unless it produced pain equivalent to organ failure or death.
Most of the newly released memorandum, also signed by Mr. Bybee, is blacked out. But one section describes a loophole stating that an interrogator would not violate the law against torture unless he has a “specific intent” to cause severe pain.
“Based on the information you have provided us, we believe that those carrying out these procedures would not have the specific intent to inflict severe physical pain or suffering,” the August 2002 memorandum says, apparently to C.I.A. officials.
The third document, a one-page memorandum from Aug. 4, 2004, appears to reflect growing legal concerns about the continued use of harsh methods as Congress and the Supreme Court began to intervene in Bush administration detention practices. “The interrogation of [redacted] should proceed,” it says, “only with a clear understanding [redacted] of all the legal and policy matters involved with the interrogation techniques.”
The memorandums are available at aclu.org/safefree/torture/36104res20080724.html.
Mr. Jaffer, of the A.C.L.U., said the documents “supply further evidence, if any were needed, that the Justice Department authorized the C.I.A. to torture prisoners in its custody.” He said the redactions appeared designed to “protect senior officials.”
A C.I.A. spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, said the redactions were to prevent terrorists from learning about the agency’s interrogation methods, which he called “safe, lawful and effective.”
“The agency’s goal in questioning terrorists has been to acquire solid, actionable information that would help disrupt plots and save lives,” Mr. Gimigliano said. “That’s one of the many reasons why the caricatures of this program out there make no sense.”
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