WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House, under mounting pressure in the CIA's destruction of terrorism suspect interrogation videotapes, made an unusually aggressive push Wednesday to defend its handling of the controversy.
Spokeswoman Dana Perino demanded, and obtained, a correction from the New York Times of a secondary headline that she said implied that she had misled the US public about the White House's involvement in the flap.
It had reported that four top White House lawyers had taken part in debates about whether to destroy the tapes, which are now the subject of probes by the CIA, US Justice Department, lawmakers, and are part of a federal court case.
Perino refused to comment on the substance of the article, but zeroed in on a Times sub-headline -- "White House Role Was Wider Than It Said" -- and made a rare public, written demand for a correction to that "pernicious" assertion.
The spokeswoman said she believed that the message was "that I had either changed my story, or I or somebody else at the White House had misled the public. And that is not true."
A Times spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis, noted that "the White House has not challenged the contents of our story" but said the correction would make clear that "the White House" has not officially characterized its own involvement in the case.
The White House has been in a defensive crouch ever since CIA chief Michael Hayden revealed, under pressure from news organizations, that the agency in 2005 destroyed tapes of interrogations of two Al-Qaeda suspects.
The tapes reportedly show the operatives undergoing waterboarding, in which prisoners are subjected to a controlled process of simulated drowning that is widely considered torture.
Hayden said the recordings, made in 2002, were destroyed to protect the identities of CIA agents, but the news outraged lawmakers and human rights groups who charge that the agency may be covering up possible torture.
Perino has said that US President George W. Bush does not recall knowing about the videos or the decision to destroy them until Hayden briefed him as the controversy erupted two weeks ago.
But she has flatly refused to answer any other questions, saying that Bush's official government lawyer has ordered White House staff not to comment publicly on the case while several investigations work their way forward.
The Times's report came as US District Court Judge Henry Kennedy summoned lawyers for the CIA and those for "war on terrorism" prisoners at the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to give oral arguments on the issue Friday.
In 2005, Kennedy ordered the preservation of evidence "regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees" in Guantanamo. Lawyers for detainees say the destruction of the videos may be obstruction of justice.
The Times, citing unnamed current and former administration and intelligence officials, said that four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency in 2003 and 2005 on the question of whether to keep the recordings.
"The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged," it said.
The Times cited "conflicting accounts" as to whether any of the lawyers supported destroying the tapes, but cited one former top intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter as saying that "there had been 'vigorous sentiment' among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes."
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