Obama CIA pick may back "limited" abuse prosecution

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's choice to head the CIA said on Thursday he would support "limited" prosecution of any agents who deliberately violated the law in interrogating terrorism suspects.

Former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta, in Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination, broke with outgoing CIA Director Michael Hayden to support a congressional inquiry into the agency's detention and interrogation program launched after the September 11 attacks.

He said the Senate Intelligence Committee would be an appropriate place for an inquiry "to learn lessons from what happened" in the program, and said he would do everything he could to cooperate.

Terrorism suspects were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques denounced as illegal torture, including, in three cases, simulated drowning or "waterboarding."

Panetta said he considered "waterboarding" to be torture, but did not support prosecuting agents who relied on high-level legal guidance allowing such techniques.

However, "if there were those who deliberately violated the law, and deliberately took actions which were above and beyond the standards presented to them, then obviously in those limited cases there should be prosecution," he said.

He said he also suspected the United States had sent some terrorism suspects to other countries for interrogation using harsher techniques that violated U.S. standards.

Hayden has opposed any inquiry into the interrogation program, saying that if agents were to feel legally vulnerable, they would be intimidated in their future work.

Panetta said he would if necessary ask Obama to allow harsher interrogations than those covered by the Army Field Manual, which the president last month set as the government standard. The manual bans techniques such as waterboarding.

"I would not hesitate," to seek broader interrogation authority, Panetta said, adding "I think that this president would do nothing that would violate the laws that are in place."

He promised to tell Congress if Obama were to authorize a departure from standards the president imposed last month.

Panetta is a former U.S. congressman and White House chief of staff under former President Bill Clinton. He is expected to win easy confirmation, despite his lack of professional experience and some questions from Republicans concerned over his denunciations of torture.

Panetta also said as CIA director he would seek to identify risks related to the global economic crisis. "What are the consequences of that in terms of stability in the world?" he said.

(Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen; editing by Todd Eastham)