White House Endorsed Waterboarding In Secret Memos

The Bush administration issued secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency’s use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques, the Washington Post reports. The classified memos were requested by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet more than a year after the interrogations began, according to four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents. The CIA worried about a backlash if the program became public, and requested written presidential authorization.