The request came an a letter signed by 56 members of Congress -- including John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., who heads the House Judiciary Committee, and Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who sit on the Intelligence Committee -- The Washington Post reported.

The letter said "information indicates that the Bush administration may have systematically implemented, from the top down, detainee interrogation policies that constitute torture or otherwise violate the law."

Conyers said that because the debate within the administration on interrogation tactics involved the Justice Department, an impartial counsel is needed to determine if the law was broken.