Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may have been the first Bush administration official to greenlight waterboarding and other harsh interrogation practices, a Senate narrative concluded yesterday. Rice had previously admitted to attending meetings during which such tactics were discussed, but this new report suggests she had a larger, more integral role in the illegal interrogations.

From the report, which was cobbled together from a series of interviews and testimony and can be downloaded at The Guardian:

Members of the president’s Cabinet and other senior officials attended meetings in the White House where specific interrogation techniques were discussed. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was then the National Security Advisor, said that, ‘in the spring of 2002, CIA sought policy approval from the National Security Council (NSC) to begin an interrogation program for high-level al-Qaida terrorists.’ Secretary Rice said that she asked Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet to brief NSC Principals on the program and asked the Attorney General John Ashcroft ‘personally to review and confirm the legal advice prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel.’ She also said that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld participated in the NSC review of the CIA’s program.

Obviously the fallout from the interrogation discussions will continue to grow, and we wonder if Rice will take much of the heat. We also wonder what her employer, Stanford University, will have to say about the matter.

On a lighter note, Rice had dinner with American Idol Randy Jackson last month, Us Weekly reports. Said Rice’s spokesperson, "She’s a longtime admirer of Randy and enjoyed the opportunity to meet him in person and talk about their common passion for music." Rice is a classically trained pianist.