• Military
• WMD

• Intelligence Menu               

• Systems
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Imagery
• Links

• Homeland Security
• Space

Obama Does Not Rule Out Prosecution of Senior Bush Officials on Interrogation Policy

By VOA News
21 April 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama says it is up to the attorney general whether to prosecute Bush-era officials who approved harsh interrogation techniques on terror suspects.

The president told reporters at the White House Tuesday he is opposed to prosecuting anyone who used the tactics in accordance with legal guidance from the previous administration.

But he said it is up to Attorney General Eric Holder whether to pursue charges against "those who formulated" those legal decisions.

Mr. Obama said the move last week to release memos that detailed Central Intelligence Agency interrogation methods was one of the toughest decisions he has ever had to make.

He said the memos, which detailed harsh methods including sleep deprivation and waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, showed the U.S. "losing our moral bearings."

In an interview with Fox News aired Monday night, Dick Cheney, who was vice president in the Bush administration, defended the use of harsh interrogation techniques, saying they produced results.

Cheney called for the release of additional memos, saying that would make for what he calls an "honest debate."

At CIA headquarters Monday, President Obama said such harsh techniques, approved by the Bush administration, undermine "our moral authority and do not make us safer."

Speaking to CIA employees, Mr. Obama said he acted primarily because of the exceptional circumstances concerning the memos. He said much of the information already had been publicly acknowledged.

Critics say the release of the Bush-era memos undermines national security.

One U.S. Justice Department memo says CIA interrogators used the waterboarding technique on two key detainees at least 266 times, 183 times on the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in March 2003, and 83 times on alleged al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah in August 2002.

A former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, said in 2007 that 35 seconds of waterboarding caused Zubaydah to reveal key intelligence that allowed the U.S. to prevent several terrorist attacks.

The practice of waterboarding was halted in 2006.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.