"The documents provide new details about the still-murky early months of the C.I.A.'s detention program, when the agency began using a set of harsh interrogation techniques weeks before the Justice Department issued a written legal opinion in August 2002 authorizing their use. Congressional investigators have long tried to determine exactly who authorized these techniques before the legal opinion was completed.

"The documents are a list of answers provided by Ms. Rice and John B. Bellinger III, the former top lawyer at the National Security Council, to detailed questions by the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is investigating the abuse of detainees in American custody. The documents were provided to The New York Times by SenatorCarl Levin, chairman of the committee.

"Mr. Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said the new documents showed that top Bush administration officials were more actively engaged in the debate about the limits of lawful interrogation than the White House had previously acknowledged.

" 'So far, there has been little accountability at higher levels,'  Mr. Levin said. 'Here you've got some evidence that there was discussion about those harsh techniques in the White House.' "

Boy, is that an understatement!

And Nancy Pelosi arrogantly took impeachment off the table.