House Republican Leader John A. Boehner slammed proposals Thursday for investigations into harsh interrogation methods used on terrorism suspects under the Bush administration, as a key Senate Republican accused the Obama administration of politicizing national security issues.

With leading congressional Democrats calling for either committee hearings or an independent investigation into methods that critics say amounted to illegal torture, Boehner, R-Ohio, said such probes would yield nothing new and might even make the country less safe.

“I don’t see what we’re going to learn that congressional leaders didn’t already know,” Boehner said. He said that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Republican and Democratic leaders were regularly briefed on the interrogation of terrorism suspects and that as far as he knew, no one raised objections.

Democrats have said they didn’t know all the details of the methods used and that even if they did, they couldn’t raise public objections because their briefings were secret.

Across the Capitol, Sen. Christopher S. Bond , R-Mo., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, “The administration has ‘cherry-picked’ the release of classified information that only tells the side of the story they want to share.”

Bond said the White House withheld details showing the program’s value. He cited a letter he said was circulated to the intelligence community by Obama’s director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis C. Blair , the same day Obama released the CIA memos. Blair said the harsh interrogations produced “high-value information” and gave the U.S. government a “deeper understanding of the al Qaeda organization that was attacking this country,” Bond said.

He said intelligence needs should not be partisan. “Protecting American families from terrorist attacks should not be a political issue,” Bond said in a statement.

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Boehner said Obama is using the debate over alleged torture to deflect public attention from the economy. “I don’t see a lot of value in looking back. The American people are worried about the economy,” he said. “This is another sideshow.”

Boehner said, “The war on terrorism was done on a bipartisan basis. Whether it was terrorist interrogations, NSA surveillance or the Treasury’s tracking of terrorists’ money, all this information was downloaded to leaders of both parties, with no objections being raised.”

Boehner said Obama’s decision to release memos detailing harsh interrogation practices in the Bush administration will hurt national security. He said the release, and the possibility that some of those who drafted legal opinions allowing such treatment might face prosecution, “provides a chilling effect on intelligence officers.”

And he said, “I’m hopeful that Americans will begin to understand there is a bigger story here about what was done to keep America safe.”

The disclosure of the memos, Obama’s stated refusal to use the harsh techniques, and his decision to eventually close the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorism suspects also drew Boehner’s fire.