Obama shields CIA terror interrogators

President Barack Obama granted immunity to CIA officers involved in tough terror interrogations as he released graphic memos detailing harsh methods approved by ex-president George W. Bush.

In the documents, Bush-era legal officials argued that such tactics that Obama has since disowned such as simulated drowning, facial slapping, the use of insects to scare prisoners and sleep deprivation did not amount to torture.

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

"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."

The fourgraphic memos offered a stunning glimpse inside the covert interrogation program introduced after the September 11 attacks in 2001, which critics say equated to torture, and Obama said undermined America's moral authority.

The documents argued that a long list of coercive techniques did not equal torture as they did not amount to the inflicting severe mental or physical pain.

Detailing methods used to question Al-Qaeda terror suspects, the memos reveal the use of dietary manipulation, forced nudity, facial and abdominal slaps, and the use of confined or "stress positions" for suspects.

In one technique known as "walling," interrogators could push a suspect against a false wall, so his shoulder blades make a slamming noise and make him think the impact is greater than in reality.

The memos also show interrogators asked for a ruling on whether the placing of a harmless insect in a cramped box with Al-Qaeda terror suspect Abu Zubaydah -- who had a phobia of the critters -- equated to torture.

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

Similarly, techniques included waterboarding or simulated drowning, walling and sleep deprivation also fell short of torture, the memos said.

Another memo details a 'prototypical interrogation,' which begins with a detainee stripped of his clothes, shackled, and hooded, "with the walling collar over his head and around his neck."

Human rights groups reacted withdismayto Obama's decision to shield interrogators from prosecution.

"The Department of Justice appears to be offering a get-out-of-jail-free card to individuals who, by US Attorney General Eric Holder's own estimation, were involved in acts of torture," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International.

The Center for Constitutional Rights said the immunity for officials was "one of the deepest disappointments" of the Obama administration.

"Government officials broke very serious laws: for there to be no consequences not only calls our system of justice into question, it leaves the gate open for this to happen again."

In a statement, Obama said the tactics adopted by the administration of his predecessor "undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer."

The memos were authored by Jay Bybee and Steven Bradbury, who at the time were lawyers for Bush's Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel.





Dancers from Ensemble of the Turkish state opera and ballet perform the play "Rose Garden" during the Skopje Dance Festival. AFP/Robert Atanasovski