The CIA has for the first time publicly admitted using the controversial method of "waterboarding" on terror suspects.
CIA director Michael Hayden told Congress however that it had only been used on three Bush presents $3 trillion budget ...
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He said the technique had been used on high-profile al-Qaeda detainees Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
He said there had been concerns that al-Qaeda attacks were imminent.
Waterboarding is an interrogation technique in which the detainee is put in fear of drowning.
Some critics describe it as torture and Congress has been debating banning its use by the CIA.
President Bush has threatened to veto such a bill.
"We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time," Mr Hayden said.
"There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al-Qaeda and its workings.
"Those two realities have changed."
(BBC)
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