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The White House has insisted that President Obama was reluctant to release documents detailing harsh CIA interrogation techniques that were kept secret by the Bush Administration.

Four memos published last night showed that terror suspects had been subjected to tactics that included being slammed against walls while wearing a special plastic neck collar, kept awake for up to 11 straight days, simulation drowning known as "waterboarding" and being placed in a dark, cramped box.

Senior officials explained that the President felt compelled to release the information because of a court case under the Freedom of Information act which ordered the Administration to reveal the treatment of prisoners interrogated by CIA agents.

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Many senior Democrats are as deep in this one as their Republican counterparts

Catherine Philp, Diplomatic Correspondent

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Denis McDonough, the Deputy National Security Advisor, said: “The President believes that this court proceeding, a legal proceeding, required him to take this action.”

Nine additional documents were released by the Administration last month and more are expected to follow as a result of legal action taken by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

“He would have preferred to not have spent the last month methodically working through this issue,” Mr McDonough told Fox News. “I think that he would have preferred to have to have moved beyond this. But the fact is there is a court case and the President believes that he, out of respect for transparency and the rule of law, had to take this step.”

The memos showed that the Justice Department also approved exploiting one detainee's fear of insects by putting caterpillars in the box with him. Others were kept naked and cold for long periods, denied food, shackled for prolonged periods or had their family threatened.

Many senior figures in the Obama Administration, as well as human rights groups, believe that such practices amount to torture.

Both the President and Attorney General Eric Holder, however, reassured CIA operatives yesterday that those involved in the interrogations would not face criminal prosecution so long as they had adhered to the legal advice given to them at the time from the Justice Department. "Nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past," said the President. "This is a time for reflection, not retribution."

CIA Director Leon Panetta told employees that the interrogation practices had been approved at the highest levels of the Bush administration and that they had nothing to fear if they had followed the rules. "You need to be fully confident that as you defend the nation, I will defend you," he said.

The techniques were used against 14 detainees that the US considered to have high intelligence value after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks between 2002 and 2005. These included the alleged al-Qaeda mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who had initially refused to answer questions about other plots against the US.

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