CIA Director Details Interrogations

In another reaction to a lengthy New York Times article yesterday on secret Department of Justice legal opinions on interrogation tactics, the director of the CIA sent an internal memo to employees disputing the premise that the memos opened the door for harsher methods.

In his memo, Michael Hayden describes the program as "small, carefully run and highly productive," and says it doesn't involve torture and complies with U.S. and international "guidelines," as the Washington Post puts it.

"Fewer than 100 hardened terrorists have gone through the program since it began in 2002," Hayden writes, "and, of those, less than a third have required any special methods of questioning."

Democratic leaders in Congress have reacted to news of the memos—and continuing use of overseas secret prisons by the CIA—with requests for documents and plans to hold hearings, as discussed in ABAJournal.com posts earlier today and yesterday.