on Thursday disavowed the now-defunct legal reasoning used to justify harsh questioning of terrorism suspects, but dug in his heels to defend White House officials who pressured him while he was hospitalized four years ago to approve terror surveillance programs. For a House Judiciary Committee hearing focused on a somber subject - whether methods used to interrogate al Qaeda plotters amounted to torture - the four hours of testimony included moments of humor and repeated problems pronouncing the names of terror suspects. At one point, Mr. Ashcroft said he was so moved by the give-and-take with Bush administration colleagues he was near "standing up and singing the national anthem." At the heart of the hearing was whether U.S. interrogators acted legally in using harsh tactics - including waterboarding - on captured terror...
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