Obama approves new unit for interrogating terror suspects

Its creation is seen as a way for the Obama administration to distance itself from coercive methods used during the Bush era. It will be housed at FBI headquarters and report to the White House.

Reporting from Washington - President Obama has approved the creation of a new multi-agency interrogation unit for suspected terrorists that will be based at the FBI but overseen by policy-makers at the White House and its National Security Council, senior administration officials said today.

The new unit, called the HIG, or High-value detainee Interrogation Group, was seen as one of the administration's most forceful efforts to date to distance itself from the Bush administration and the coercive interrogation methods used by the CIA with approval by political appointees at the Bush Justice Department.

The CIA still will play a role in the interrogation and transfer of future high-value terrorist suspects, including Al Qaeda leaders and their financiers and facilitators, according to the administration officials, who briefed reporters on the new plan but refused to discuss its details by name.

But the new unit, in addition to being housed at FBI headquarters in Washington, will be led by an as-yet-unnamed FBI official and comprise interrogators, analysts and linguists from numerous civilian and military agencies, the officials said. Its deputy director will come from a U.S. intelligence agency, and the unit overall will report to the White House.

In the Bush administration, the CIA had the lead -- and usually exclusive -- role in interrogations of suspected Al Qaeda operatives, with the U.S. military conducting the questioning of many militants caught in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton also discussed the new unit, telling reporters covering the vacationing Obama on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., that it will include "all these different elements under one group."

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and the two senior administration officials said the recommendations were made after extensively consulting with military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including some of the nation's most experienced and skilled interrogators that they employ.