WASHINGTON -- The CIA's secret interrogation program has made

extensive use of outside contractors, whose role likely included the

waterboarding of terrorist suspects, according to testimony yesterday

from the CIA director and two other people familiar with the

program.

Many of the contractors

involved aren't large corporate entities but rather individuals who

are often former agency or military officers. However, large

corporations also are involved, current and former officials said.

Their identities couldn't be learned.





The broader involvement of contractors, and the likelihood they

partook in waterboarding, raises new legal questions about the Central

Intelligence Agency's use of the practice, which is designed to

simulate drowning. It also will fuel the contentious debate over the

administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques. The broader involvement of contractors, and the likelihood theypartook in waterboarding, raises new legal questions about the CentralIntelligence Agency's use of the practice, which is designed tosimulate drowning. It also will fuel the contentious debate over theadministration's use of harsh interrogation techniques.







The role of contractors in sensitive security programs has become a

hot issue on Capitol Hill. It isn't clear what laws govern their work

and who is accountable when activities go awry, as they did when

employees of the security firm Blackwater allegedly killed 17 Iraqi

civilians and wounded 24 others in September. An investigation of that

is under way; Blackwater continues to provide security services to

State Department employees in Iraq.







In testimony before the House yesterday, CIA Director Michael V.

Hayden was asked whether contractors were involved in waterboarding al

Qaeda detainees. He replied: "I'm not sure of the specifics. I'll

give you a tentative answer: I believe so." An agency spokesman

declined to clarify the answer.



According to two current and

former intelligence officials, the use of contracting at the CIA's

secret sites increased quickly in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, in

part because the CIA had little experience in detentions and

interrogation. Using nongovernment employees also helped maintain a

low profile, they said. The sites were designed to handle only the

most sensitive detainees. Gen. Hayden has said fewer than 100 people

have been held at these sites.





In his comments yesterday, Gen. Hayden said that among the reasons the

agency eliminated waterboarding from its interrogation program was

that the legal landscape has changed. In his comments yesterday, Gen. Hayden said that among the reasons theagency eliminated waterboarding from its interrogation program wasthat the legal landscape has changed.







"In my own view, the view of my lawyers and the Department of

Justice, it is not certain that that technique would be considered to

be lawful under current statute," he told lawmakers on the House

intelligence panel.







Gen. Hayden maintained that the practice was legal at the time the CIA

used it, from 2002 to 2003, on three al Qaeda suspects. "All the

techniques that we've used have been deemed to be lawful, he said.







The use of outside contractors raises awkward questions about

accountability. "The government may be prohibited from doing

something, but is a corporation?" asked R.J. Hillhouse, a former

political-science professor who has researched the outsourcing of

military and intelligence operations for her book "Outsourced."

Ms. Hillhouse said procurement law has traditionally differentiated

between the reporting responsibilities of government officers and

contractors.







Gen. Hayden, however, said private contractors involved in CIA

interrogations "are bound by the same rules" as the agency's

officers.





Lawmakers are concerned that using contractors in interrogations may

violate the law, or at least government policy, which states that

"inherently governmental activities" must be performed by

government personnel. Lawmakers are concerned that using contractors in interrogations mayviolate the law, or at least government policy, which states that"inherently governmental activities" must be performed bygovernment personnel.







Jeffrey Smith, a former CIA general counsel, said it might make sense

to use contractors who have a language specialty to screen detainees,

for example. But waterboarding crosses into the realm of activities

only the government should perform.







"If we're going to ask contractors to do these things, then we

have to find a way to assure that they comply with the law and that,

to the extent we direct them to do activities that violate local law,

that we protect them," Mr. Smith said. He added that he opposes

the waterboarding.





Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, wrote to Attorney

General Michael Mukasey on Wednesday to ask his views on the legality

of involving contractors to program interrogations. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, wrote to AttorneyGeneral Michael Mukasey on Wednesday to ask his views on the legalityof involving contractors to program interrogations.







"I believe the interrogation of detainees falls squarely within

the definition of an inherently governmental activity," Sen.

Feinstein wrote. The 2006 Detainee Treatment Act includes a legal

shield for U.S. government employees who use officially authorized

interrogation techniques.







"It is not all that clear to me, given our experiences in Iraq,

that private contractors are held to the same standards as are

government employees," Rep. Jan Schakowsky, the Illinois Democrat

who asked Gen. Hayden about contractors' use of waterboarding, said in

an interview. "People who actually work for us are accountable to

us. Using employees of private companies to engage in what most of the

world anyway believes is torture, I find problematic."







The CIA established its detention sites in several countries,

including Thailand, Afghanistan and multiple countries in Eastern

Europe. Waterboarding reportedly took place in Thailand and possibly

other countries.







The Justice Department is currently investigating the CIA's

destruction of interrogation tapes that reportedly included footage of

waterboarding. Lawmakers have urged the department to expand its

inquiry to include a criminal inquiry of the technique. The attorney

general told a separate House committee yesterday he wasn't ready to

do that.







Providing additional details about the workings of the once highly

secret interrogation program, Gen. Hayden said, "was a very

difficult decision." He described the program as "a covert

action," which is perhaps the most secret type of operation the

agency does.







He said, however, it was time to talk more openly about the program

because it was being widely debated in public and "it was our

strong belief that the political discussion that was going on was

misshaped."



