WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. White House refused to comment Wednesday on the new findings of The New York Times that four White House lawyers were involved in the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes.

    In her daily briefing, White House spokeswomen Dana Perino repeated the complaint that the newspaper incorrectly implied that she had willfully misled the press.

Demonstrator Maboud Ebrahimzadeh is held down during a simulation of waterboarding outside the Justice Department in Washington Nov. 5, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters, File Photo)
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    But Perino refused to comment on any details of the issue, except to say President George W. Bush only remembered learning the spy agency had destroyed potential criminal trial evidence just before the story became public.

    "We have not described -- neither to highlight, nor to minimize-- the role or deliberations of White House officials in this matter," she said.

    As reporters pressed Perino on whether the article was inaccurate in its substance, she refused to say "yes" or "no."

    A New York Times report on Wednesday said between 2003 and 2005,four White House lawyers took part in discussions with the CIA on whether the tapes should be destroyed.

    They were Alberto Gonzales, the White House counsel until 2005;David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's former lawyer and now chief of staff; John B. Bellinger, a former senior lawyer for the National Security Council; and Harriet Miers, who became White House counsel when Gonzales was promoted to Attorney General.

    The report was based on unnamed current and former intelligence and administration officials.

    The new findings came to light as a federal judge ordered a hearing Tuesday into whether the tapes' destruction violated an order to preserve evidence in a lawsuit brought on behalf of 16 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    The tapes documented harsh interrogation methods used in 2002 on Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, two al Qaida suspects in CIA custody. They were destroyed by the CIA in 2005.

    The destruction of the tapes was first revealed by The New York Times, which forced the CIA to acknowledge the issue.

    The Justice Department and the CIA have launched an preliminary investigation.

    The Congress is pushing forward its own investigation, despite objections from the Bush administration.

U.S. judge orders CIA tape destruction inquiry

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal judge ordered a hearing Tuesday on whether the Bush administration violated a court order by destroying CIA interrogation videos of two al-Qaida suspects.

    In a court order, District Judge Henry H. Kennedy rejected calls from the Justice Department to stay out of the matter.

U.S. lawmakers to probe CIA destroying interrogation videotapes

    BEIJING, Dec. 17(Xinhuanet) -- U.S. Congress members vowed Sunday to investigate the CIA's destruction of videotapes depicting harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects despite Justice Department's advice to the agency not to cooperate in the matter, according to media reports Monday. 

Lawmakers: CIA not fully inform Congress of interrogation tape destruction

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Hayden stops to talk to reporters as he arrives for a closed-door session with the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington Dec. 11, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) has not totally informed U.S. Congress of their intent to destroy the videotapes of interrogating terrorist suspects, a House committee said on Wednesday.  

U.S. lawmakers unsatisfied with CIA testimony on destroyed tapes

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. lawmakers were unsatisfied with the explanation by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Hayden on Tuesday about reasons for the agency to make and then destroy videotapes of interrogating two terrorist suspects.

CIA director to testify in Congress as torture issue debate revives

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Hayden is set on Tuesday to testify at Congress on the agency's destruction of videotapes of interrogating terrorist suspects, reviving the debate over the torture issue.