U.S. lost its moral bearings over torture, says Obama - and warns Bush officials could be charged



America lost its ‘moral bearings’ over its torture of terrorist suspects, President Obama said last night.

He also left the door open for possible prosecutions of Bush administration lawyers who approved tough interrogation methods such as waterboarding.

Mr Obama conceded that an inquiry might be necessary, despite earlier assurances that those responsible for ordering and carrying out the torture techniques would not be punished.

On the front foot: Barack Obama, standing alongside CIA chief Leon Panetta, also told agency staff that their expertise was vital in the fight against Al Qaeda

But he said it is important that a congressional probe doesn’t deteriorate into petty party political bickering.

Mr Obama also defended his decision to release official memos which revealed senior Bush administration lawyers approved controversial questioning techniques that he outlawed as torture days after taking office.

He said the U.S. Department of Justice memos ‘reflect, in my view, us losing our moral bearings’.

He stood by his claim that CIA agents should be absolved from prosecution because they were acting on government advice that what they were doing was legal.

However, he said it may be up to America’s top lawyer, Attorney General Eric Holder, to decide whether officials should be punished.

‘I think that there are a host of very complicated issues involved here,’ he said.

The President said he could support a congressional inquiry only if it was conducted in a bipartisan way ‘outside of the typical hearing process’ and with ‘ independent participants who are above reproach’.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney believes America does not need to apologise for its foreign policy

'As a general view, I do think we should be looking forward, not back,' he said. 'I do worry about this getting so politicised that we cannot function effectively and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations.'



The president spoke as former Vice President Dick Cheney insisted America has 'nothing to apologise for' and demanded he release evidence that torture - waterboarding in particular - was successful.

'Since the U.S. provides most leadership in the world, I don't think we have much to apologise for,' said Cheney.

His comments follow Obama's pledge of support yesterday to CIA chief Leon Panetta to make public the classified information on the widely-condemned waterboarding



'One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort,' Cheney told Fox News last night.

'I haven't talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country.

'I've now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was.

'It's important to not personally attack the new president - I've never done that.



'There's a great temptation for a new administration to find a problem and blame it on the predecessor. We did it.



'The Obama administration is not the first one to do that,' he added.

Waterboarding - now outlawed by Obama - was launched by former President George W Bush after the September 11 attacks.

One memo said waterboarding - a form of stimulated drowning widely-considered torture - had been used a total of 266 times on two of the three Al Qaeda suspects.

The U.S. Justice Department said that CIA interrogators used the technique 183 times on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed planner of the September 11 attacks and 83 times on another Al Qaeda prisoner, Abu Zubaydah.

The memo appears to contradict a former CIA officer who claimed two years ago, when the waterboarding claims first surfaced amid a huge public outcry, that Zubaydah had been subjected to the technique for just 35 seconds before agreeing to tell everything he knew.

The impression given was that, while the technique might be harrowing, it was brief and brought immediate results.



In this reconstruction, the subject is strapped down and waterboarded. The technique simulates drowning

Obama said the memos were released because they had become the subject of a burdensome court fight and their covert nature had already been compromised.

Panetta vowed to respect a ban on harsh interrogations that Obama issued in January. He had opposed releasing the memos, joining former CIA directors concerned that their release could expose agents to retribution.



Cheney's comments follow Obama's visit to CIA headquarters where he emphasised the importance of the CIA's role in the fight against al Qaeda.



'We live in dangerous times. I am going to need you more than ever,' Obama said.



He advised the employees not to be discouraged by public discussion of 'mistakes'.

The visit represented a swift bid by Obama to shore up CIA morale after he released classified Bush-era legal memos last week detailing the interrogation program.

Republican Kit Bond, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the release of the memos was a signal to CIA employees that 'our government is not going to stand behind you'.

Obama pledged to employees that he would be 'vigorous' in protecting them.



Obama also drew anger from human rights groups, by saying last week he would not prosecute CIA interrogators who had relied on the Bush-era legal guidelines.

The Democratic head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, urged him to withhold judgement on prosecutions, pending a closed-door review by her committee of the interrogation program.



Obama also acknowledged that CIA senior leaders in recent conversations had demonstrated 'anxiety and concern' over his limits on interrogation techniques.



