Source:
APWASHINGTON (AP) — A top House Democrat raised new questions Tuesday about the accuracy of the CIA's account of congressional briefings on severe interrogation techniques. He said a staff aide the agency listed as attending a 2006 briefing was instead barred from it.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey said in a May 18 letter to CIA Director Leon Panetta that a committee aide, Paul Juola, member was listed as being in a Sept. 19, 2006, briefing on the full detainee program, including 13 enhanced interrogation techniques.
But according to Obey, Juola said he walked members to the briefing room, but was told by then-CIA Director Michael Hayden and another CIA official that he could not attend. Rep. Bill Young, R-FL, and Rep. John Murtha, D-PA, are listed by the CIA as attending the briefing, though Murtha left before the discussion of interrogation techniques.
The steady drip of information about CIA briefings to Congress has clouded questions of who in Congress knew what and when about the harsh interrogation techniques used on two dozen CIA prisoners. Three detainees underwent waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning that President Barack Obama has called torture.
A CIA list of 40 congressional briefings for legislators and staffers was turned over to Congress two weeks ago.
Read more:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5isN9N6DPyXoLKEO3ZwDWENLrOMVQD989ECC80