Rice, Cheney involved in torture memos

Based on a report, the then-Defense Secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, and then-Secretary of State, Colin Powell, were largely left out of the decision-making process.

Cheney could not be reached for comment. Rice, through an aide, declined to comment.

The narrative, posted on Wednesday on the Senate Intelligence Committee's Web site and released by its former chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D- W.Va., came as Attorney General, Eric Holder, told reporters that he would "follow the evidence wherever it takes us" in deciding whether to prosecute any Bush administration officials who authorized harsh techniques that are widely considered as torture.

In a statement accompanying the narrative's release, Rockefeller said the task of declassifying interrogation and detention opinions "is not complete" and urged for a prompt declassification of other opinions from 2006 and 2007 that he said would show how Bush's Justice Department officials interpreted laws governing torture and war crimes.

Meanwhile, another declassified document indicates that the CIA first requested in May 2002 to be allowed to question terrorism suspects with a near-drowning technique known as waterboarding.

The agency got the green light to use the tactic, which has widely been judged to be torture, on July 26, 2002, the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a detailed timeline of controversial "war on terrorism" interrogations.