C.I.A. Chief Doubts Tactic to Interrogate Is Still Legal

By SCOTT SHANE
New York Times

WASHINGTON — Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told a Congressional committee on Thursday that waterboarding may be illegal under current law, despite assertions this week from the director of national intelligence and the White House that the harsh interrogation method may be used in the future.

General Hayden said that while “all the techniques we’ve used have been deemed to be lawful,” laws have changed since waterboarding was last used nearly five years ago.

“It is not included in the current program, and in my own view, the view of my lawyers and the Department of Justice, it is not certain that the technique would be considered to be lawful under current statute,” General Hayden said before the House Intelligence Committee.

A C.I.A. spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, later said that General Hayden was in agreement with remarks earlier in the week by Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, and Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, that any decision to use waterboarding in the future would require approval by the attorney general and the president.

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