WASHINGTON—The White House Wednesday defended its response to disclosures about the CIA's destruction of videotapes that showed harsh interrogations of two terrorism suspects.
The New York Times reported that at least four White House lawyers participated in discussions with the CIA between 2003 and 2005 about whether the tapes should be destroyed.
The Times said the lawyers' participation showed White House officials were more extensively involved than the Bush administration has acknowledged.
The White House refused to discuss the central focus of the article—whether a number of top advisers to President Bush were aware of the tapes. It cited an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department and the CIA.
But the administration attacked the newspaper on the more narrow point of whether the White House tried to minimize the role its officials played when the story about the tapes broke earlier this month.
"We have not described—neither to highlight, nor to minimize—the role or deliberations of White House officials in this matter," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a written statement.
In a contentious briefing with reporters later, she added, "I'm not commenting on the underlying facts of the story."
The CIA on Dec. 6 disclosed that it had destroyed hundreds of hours of interrogation tapes, prompting an outcry from congressional Democrats and human rights activists.
The sessions recorded on the tapes were believed to have included a form of simulated drowning known as waterboarding, which has been condemned internationally as torture.
The Democratic-led Congress has also vowed to investigate the tapes' destruction. The House Intelligence Committee has drawn up subpoenas against administration officials and will issue them if they do not cooperate, a congressional aide said Wednesday.
Lawmakers have accused the administration of trying to prevent the CIA from cooperating with their probe. The Justice Department, which wrote to the House committee last week to say CIA cooperation would be "problematic," says it has only asked Congress to defer a probe to avoid interfering with its own investigation.
Gonzales, Miers Discussed Tapes, Says Report
Bush, who has said the United States does not engage in torture, said the first time he learned of the tapes was when CIA Director Michael Hayden briefed him this month.
Perino reiterated Bush's assertion. "He does not recall being told about the existence of the tapes, nor their destruction before being briefed by the CIA briefer," she said.
The Times reported that participants in the tape discussions included Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers, both former White House counsels; John Bellinger, then a lawyer at the National Security Council; and David Addington, a senior adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.
The CIA said it destroyed the tapes lawfully and did so out of concern for the safety of agents involved if the recordings were ever made public.
However, over the objections of the Bush administration, a U.S. judge has ordered a hearing for Friday to learn whether the CIA violated a court order by destroying the tapes.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, accused the administration of "stonewalling."
"Every time we seem to reach a new low in this administration's arrogant flaunting of the rule of law and constitutional limits on executive power, we learn startling new revelations about the extent to which some will go to avoid accountability, undermine oversight and stonewall the truth," Leahy said during a Senate hearing.
Feeds