Secrets

What Cheney Told Congress

Veep defended interrogations in 2005.

The debate over "enhanced interrogation tactics" is likely to rage on, particularly in light of The Washington Post's new discovery that former vice president Dick Cheney personally oversaw at least four briefings on the matter to senior members of Congress in 2005. According to an official who attended the briefings, Cheney defended the program but did not outline specific interrogation techniques. The briefings were held at a time when congressional committees had threatened to investigate and possibly end the program. Last month, the CIA delivered documents to Congress purporting to list every lawmaker briefed on the tactics. Yet, as the Post writes, "For meetings that were overseen by Cheney, the agency told the intelligence committees that information about who oversaw these briefings was 'not available.'" The CIA declined to comment on the matter.