Four anonymous administration and intelligence officials revealed to the Washington Post this week that the Bush administration issued secret memos in 2003 and 2004 that told CIA officials it approved waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques for al-Qaida suspects. The memos of course remain classified.

The sources indicate that the documents were issued in response to concerns amongst intelligence officials that the White House would later distance itself from decisions about the handling of detainees. At the time of the first memo's issuance, the CIA was already holding nine detainees in secret prisons. Three of the prisoners were subjected to waterboarding, claim the sources.

According to the Post's account, the Justice Department had previously approved the CIA's practicies, but the CIA wanted an official endorsement from White House officials. During meetings that led up to the issuance of the second memo, some participants were seemingly uncomfortable with graphic descriptions of the interrogations. One of those was Attorney General John Ashcroft who has been quoted in the book The Dark Side as saying, "History will not judge us kindly."

The mere existence of these memos suggests a very different version of events from that which was put forth by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Just last month she confirmed that the administration knew about "certain physical and psychological interrogation techniques" but that they had questioned their legality.