US - CIA torture documents

Obama says no prosecution of CIA agents over torture

Article published on the 2009-04-17 Latest update 2009-04-17 14:09 TU

An anti-Guantanamo protest in Washington
( Photo: AFP )

US President Barack Obama pledged that CIA agents involved in terror interrogations will not be prosecuted as the White House released four memos on Thursday documenting controversial methods approved by the former Bush administration.

In the documents, legal officials under former President George W Bush argued that tactics such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and face slapping, among others, did not amount to torture.

"This is a time for reflection, not retribution," Obama said Thursday.

"We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history. But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past."

While Obama said the tactics "undermine the [US's] moral authority and do not make us safer", human rights groups who have campaigned for prosecution were disappointed he did not go further and say such tactics amount to torture.

British actor Corin Redgrave, head of the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission, was shocked by Obama's announcement. He told RFI that not only  should the CIA agents be available for prosecution, but also Bush and his then-Vice President Dick Cheney should have to answer for authorising such methods.

"They [the CIA agents] should be prosecuted for torture, definitely," Redgrave says. "I don't think there's any circumstance in which torture is ever justified, ever."

"Torture is torture. It is completely out of comprehension for a head of government to authorise torture."

Amnesty International's executive director Larry Cox said Obama was giving the agents a "get-out-of-jail-free" card.

Similarly, the Human Rights Watch criticised Obama's shielding of the agents but was positive on one note.

"Notably, the president left open the possibility of prosecuting those higher up the chain who wrote the opinions and authorised the CIA to use abusive interrogation techniques and torture," the group said in a statement.

The coercive techniques were not torture since they did not inflict severe mental or physical pain, the memos argued.

In one instance, interrogators are documented as having asked for a ruling whether the placing of a harmless insect in a confined box with Al-Qaeda terror suspect Abu Zubaydah, who had a bug phobia, equated to torture.

The tactic "certainly does not cause physical pain" and therefore could not be termed as torture and should be permissible, one of the memos said.

In a technique called walling, interrogators would shove a detainee, who was naked, hooded, and shackled, against a false wall so his shoulder blades slammed against the surface loudly, leading him to believe the impact was great than in reality.

Other methods used to question Al-Qaeda suspects included dietary manipulation, forced nudity, and the use of confined "stress positions" for suspects.

Obama said the memos were released in order to provide an accurate account of what happened and prevent "inflammatory assumptions about actions taken by the United States".

"In releasing these memos it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution," he said in a statement.

The director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, pledged that while the CIA agents would be protected, Washington would not use similar methods in the future.

A federal court had given the government until Thursday to hand over the memos in response to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union or to explain why they could not be released.