May 8 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed in September 2002 on aggressive interrogation techniques used on suspected al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, according to a log of congressional briefings compiled by intelligence officials.

Pelosi has repeatedly said she wasn’t told that waterboarding, a technique used to simulate drowning, was used on Zubaydah or two other suspected terrorists detained by the Central Intelligence Agency. Pelosi served as vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in 2002.

A log of briefings of senior members of the House and Senate intelligence oversight panels shows Pelosi was briefed with Porter Goss, then the panel’s chairman who later headed the CIA, on Sept. 4, 2002.

The 10-page summary entitled “Member Briefings on Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” was prepared by the Director of National Intelligence.

The summary says Pelosi and Goss were briefed on so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, including their use on Zubaydah and a “description of particular EITs that had been employed.” They were also provided “background on authorities.”

The one-paragraph summary didn’t mention waterboarding or detail the techniques used to question Zubaydah.

In a statement today, Pelosi said that in the September 2002 briefing she was told about “interrogation techniques the administration was considering using in the future.” She said she was told that “legal counsel for both the CIA and the Department of Justice had concluded that the techniques were legal.”

‘No Further Briefings’

“I had no further briefings on the techniques,” Pelosi said in the statement.

Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said in a statement last night that the CIA document showed that briefers “described these techniques, said they were legal, but said waterboarding had not been used.”

Pelosi’s knowledge of what interrogation techniques were used by the CIA has been a focus of partisan debate since the release last month of Justice Department memos authorizing waterboarding.

Republicans have charged that Pelosi, in her role as vice chairman of the House intelligence panel, was aware that the spy agency used the technique on Zubaydah, one of three detainees subjected to waterboarding during CIA interrogations.

‘Enhanced Interrogation’

On April 23, Pelosi told reporters she and Goss “were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used.”

Pelosi said she was told the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel had issued “opinions that they could be used, but not that they would.”

In a Feb. 26 interview with MSNBC, Pelosi said the CIA “may have given the inference that there were some debates that waterboarding could be legal.”

Zubaydah was captured in March 2002. He was later turned over to the U.S. military and is detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 8, 2009 13:50 EDT