Obama calls on CIA to chart new course

WASHINGTON: After banning and then publicizing the most controversial interrogation practices employed by the CIA, President Obama called on the agency Monday to live up to its mission under its new marching orders."We live in dangerous times," Obama said at the CIA headquarters in Virginia. "I am going to need you more than ever."Obama last week released legal memos written by the Bush-era Justice Department that gave the CIA authority to use harsh interrogation tactics on Al Qaeda suspects -- including waterboarding, in which drowning is simulated. The release of the memos has drawn criticism from some current and former intelligence officials and Bush administration officials. However, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. has called waterboarding "torture." Along with other methods, it is forbidden under orders Obama signed in his first week in office. "I have put an end to the interrogation techniques described in those memos," Obama told CIA employees. "I believe that our nation is stronger and more secure when we deploy the full measure of both our power and the power of our values -- including the rule of law."CIA Director Leon E. Panetta drove the same message home: "We can fully protect our nation and our values at the same time," he said Monday.The White House sought to show it is leaving the past behind by announcing that no CIA agents would be prosecuted for interrogations sanctioned under the Bush administration. Obama's advisors also have suggested that the highest-level officials who authorized the practices will be immune.