Bush-era abuse may be probed

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama opened the door on Tuesday to possible prosecutions of US officials who laid the legal groundwork for harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects during the Bush administration.

Obama also said he would not necessarily oppose an effort to pursue a "further accounting" or investigation into the Bush-era interrogation program that included waterboarding, sleep deprivation, forced nudity, shoving people into walls and other methods.

That marked a shift for the Obama administration, which has emphasized it does not want to dwell on the past with lengthy probes into policies put in place by president George W. Bush after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. But pressure in the US Congress is growing for a full-blown investigation of the CIA interrogation program.