CIA nominee vows to break with Bush policies

US: President Barack Obama’s choice to head the CIA made clear Thursday he would break with Bush administration policy against terror suspects, saying detainees would not be subjected to torture while in US custody or in allied countries.

Leon Panetta, nominated as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told a senate hearing that he considered waterboarding — used by the previous administration against at least three terror suspects — to be “wrong” and that he opposed transfering detainees to countries where they may face torture or other abuse.

Panetta promised to uphold the law and to repair relations between Congress and the embattled spy agency, which has been castigated over flawed intelligence reports in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Asked at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing whether the agency would continue the practice of so-called extraordinary renditions to foreign states, Panetta said: “No, we will not.”

He said United States had the right to temporarily hold and question “high value” terrorist suspects captured abroad.

WASHINGTON, AFP