The officials included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
A former senior US intelligence official told AP that the group met in the White House Situation Room and deliberately insulated President Bush from their discussions. The American Civil Liberties Union has called for a congressional investigation. Said the group's legislative director Caroline Fredrickson,
With each new revelation, it is beginning to look like the torture operation was managed and directed out of the White House. This is what we suspected all along.
