Internal Justice probe examines sanction, review of waterboarding

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department said Friday it is investigating whether its attorneys properly authorized and reviewed the use of waterboarding by CIA investigators.

The disclosure by the Office of Professional Responsibility -- which reports to the attorney general -- was made in a letter to two Democratic senators who last week had requested such an investigation.

"Among other issues, we are examining whether the legal advice contained in those memoranda was consistent with the professional standards that apply to Department of Justice attorneys," said H. Marshall Jarrett, who heads the office.

Jarrett was referring to legal memos that were written by the Office of Legal Counsel and provided to then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales on August 1, 2002, as well as to "subsequent memos."

The Justice Department response was disclosed by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, who along with Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, had asked for an investigation of the propriety of guidance that authorized the use of waterboarding.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asked later about the letter at a news conference Friday, acknowledged the response to the senators but downplayed the significance of the review of the legal analysis.

"I have no reason to believe that politics was involved in that or any other analysis," Mukasey told reporters.

The review is not a new investigation, but has been ongoing for some time, Justice Department spokesman Brian Roherkasse stressed.

Justice Department officials said Friday the investigation included a look at the the so-called "Bybee memo," which had defined torture narrowly, as "causing pain similar to that caused by death or organ failure."

The 2002 memo was later retracted by former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Last week, Steven Bradbury, the acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, testified before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee that the current Justice Department definition of torture includes all acts that are intended to inflict "severe physical pain," "severe physical suffering" or "severe mental pain or suffering."

Waterboarding involves strapping a person to a surface, covering his face with cloth and pouring water on the face to imitate the sensation of drowning. Critics have called it torture.

Earlier this month, CIA Director Michael Hayden reiterated that the technique is not part of the interrogation program now and that waterboarding, when it was used in 2002 and 2003, was limited to three top al Qaeda suspects. E-mail to a friend

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