Top Democrats in Congress, saying Thursday they were caught off guard by new revelations about the Bush administration’s harsh interrogation policies, demanded documents, planned hearings and even considered perjury investigations.

The flurry of activity was prompted by a report in The New York Times about two secret 2005 Justice Department memos, later acknowledged by the administration. One of them reportedly authorized the combined use of several harsh interrogation tactics, such as simulated drowning or “waterboarding,” head slapping and frigid temperatures, despite a public statement by Justice in 2004 that torture was “abhorrent.” According to the Times, the memos are still in effect.

Leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary, Intelligence and Armed Services committees pressed for the documents. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., urged Congress to pass his legislation (S 1876) calling for a ban to the mistreatment of all detainees.

Several Democrats condemned the practices described in the article, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

“That’s very difficult for this great country, this great democracy, this beacon of liberty, to have us defend interrogation techniques that deal with torture; it’s out of the question,” he said, then added that a full investigation was needed. “It’s wrong, and we have to get to the bottom of it.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., without specifying which administration officials he was thinking of, said, “I’m having people review transcripts now to find out whether perjury’s been committed.

“We have sworn testimony from the administration that seems to contradict what The New York Times said,” Leahy added. “All agree that The New York Times is accurate.”

Leahy said he would discuss the memos with Bush’s nominee for attorney general, former federal judge Michael Mukasey, in the process of considering his nomination.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, without going into details on specific techniques, acknowledged the existence of the memos but denied that the administration condoned torture.

“The policy of the United States is not to torture. The president has not authorized it, he will not authorize it,” she said. “[As] I understand it, appropriate members of Congress have been briefed.”

Sen. Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo., said that the Intelligence Committee had been briefed. But the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, and John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., respectively, said they had requested the memos repeatedly and the administration refused.

Their existence appeared to surprise leaders of several other committees.

Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called it another example of the administration deliberately withholding information from the public.

“We’ve been digging into this story of abusive treatment of detainees now for a long time; we’ve gotten many, many documents,” Levin said. “But I was not aware of this document and I’m not sure anybody else was aware of this document. It’s further evidence of the way in which this administration has kept material away from public view.”

Ellen O. Tauscher of California, a senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, wrote to Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., on Thursday requesting at least one hearing on the matter.

“The administration’s compulsive need to draft its own immoral policies makes it harder to ensure that our men and women in uniform will be treated humanely should they be captured by the enemy,” Tauscher wrote.

She said the committee could receive a classified briefing.

Skelton said “you bet your life” the panel will look into the issue. “I am very concerned,” he said.

Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said his panel would examine the issue. “The whole question of interrogations,” he said, “is something on which we need to have more oversight.”

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and Rockefeller wrote letters to the administration seeking the legal documents.

While several Republicans, including Bond and his counterpart on the House Intelligence Committee, Michigan Republican Peter Hoekstra, said they were comfortable with the program, one GOP senator expressed concern.

Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who along with John McCain, R-Ariz., and John W. Warner, R-Va., helped write the Detainee Treatment Act (PL 109-148, 109-148) that banned cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees, said he would question the administration about the combination of interrogation techniques and more. “I’d been reassured that the [CIA] program was legal, and that there was no waterboarding,” he said.

Bart Jansen contributed to this story.