Ex-Justice official: CIA interrogators used unauthorized techniques on detainees

By The Post's Justice Department correspondent Jerry Markon:

CIA interrogators exceeded legal limits on harsh interrogations of al-Qaeda detainees during the Bush administration, according to a former top Justice Department official who was interviewed by congressional investigators.

House Democrats said Thursday that Jay S. Bybee, who headed the department's Office of Legal Counsel, told them in May that he never approved a number of interrogation techniques used on detainees in CIA custody. Techniques his office did approve -- such as waterboarding, the simulated drowning of terror suspects -- were used too many times on detainees, Bybee told investigators.

The House Judiciary Committee released a transcript of its interview with Bybee, who authored two of the Bush administration memos that blessed waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other tactics used after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said Bybee had revealed "that many brutal techniques reportedly used in CIA interrogations were not authorized by the Justice Department" and that the committee had sent the interview transcript to department lawyers.

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