Gibbs: Obama didn't open prosecution door

WASHINGTON, April 22 (UPI) -- Reports that U.S. President Barack Obama opened the door to prosecute authors of memos authorizing harsh interrogation measures are wrong, the White House said.

Obama's words "I'm not proposing" that an investigatory commission be named meant he wasn't proposing a commission be named, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday during a press briefing. What Obama said that, hypothetically "if Congress were to decide to set one up, it has to be done outside of the realm of politics."

Obama believes the memos that authorized harsh interrogation techniques and their release "provide a moment of reflection, not of retribution," Gibbs said, adding "the president believes that we have to look forward. And that's I think what he said Thursday, Monday and yesterday (Tuesday)."

"If somebody knowingly broke the law, that's a determination that will be ultimately made by a legal official, not by the president of the United States, or not by anybody else," Gibbs said. "I want to stress that that determination is not going to be made by the president or the vice president, or anybody that works in the White House."

When the memos were released, Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder decided CIA agents who followed the legal advice would not be prosecuted, Gibbs said.

After Obama discontinued the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, the memos were released because "there was no legal justification for continuing to keep them classified; that a lot of the information that was contained in the memos, that the types of techniques were in the public domain," the spokesman said.