Rumsfeld was in frequent contact with Miller about the progress of Qahtani's interrogation, and personally approved the most severe interrogation tactics.
He could revoke President Bush's executive order, disclosed in 2007, allowing the Central Intelligence Agency to use more severe interrogation techniques than allowed under the Army Field Manual.
He was credited by lawyers for the prisoners and human rights groups with having improved the treatment of detainees, and it was soon after he took over that some of the most severe interrogation methods were curtailed.
The announcement comes amid new questions about which officials inside the C.I.A. were involved in the decision to destroy the videotapes, which showed severe interrogation methods used on two Qaeda suspects, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 — President Bush's national security adviser signaled on Sunday that he was seeking a compromise with the Republican senators who are rebelling against the administration's proposal to explicitly permit certain severe interrogation practices against terrorism suspects.
The tapes, which showed severe interrogation methods against two operatives from Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, were made in 2002 and destroyed in 2005, the C.I.A. acknowledged this week after being questioned about the issue by The New York Times.
Current and former intelligence officials say the videotapes showed severe interrogation techniques used on two Qaeda operatives, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who were among the first three terror suspects to be detained and interrogated by the C.I.A. in secret prisons after the Sept. 11 attacks.
A1 Classified parts of the report by three Army generals on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison say Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the former top commander in Iraq, approved the use of some severe interrogation practices intended to be limited to captives held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan.
Even if a tourist could leave the hotel and get to see or meet an average North Korean – who is not allowed to be in the vicinity of foreign tourists – this person will be subject to severe interrogation and serious consequences.
Brennan's role in that program and the extent of his involvement in and knowledge of severe interrogation methods such as waterboarding during the Bush era were the subject of pointed questioning during his confirmation hearings after Obama nominated him to head the CIA in January 2013.
