President Obama yesterday changed his mind over the release of thousands of photographs of the abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan after military commanders warned that the publication of such images would fuel anti-American sentiment and endanger US troops.

His decision immediately provoked an outcry from the Left and civil liberties groups, which have been pushing for criminal prosecutions of officials responsible for harsh interrogation techniques they regard as torture.

Jameel Jaffer, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, said: “We find that wholly unacceptable. It's inconsistent with the commitment they've made to the court and it's inconsistent with the promise of transparency that they've repeated many times both before the election and since.”

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said that Mr Obama, who had previously said he had no option but to release the photographs under freedom of information laws, wanted lawyers to go back to the courts and argue that publishing such information would put lives at risk.

Republicans have repeatedly attacked the Obama Administration for such policies such as the closure of Guantánamo Bay detention centre which they say will make America less safe. They also say argue that senior Democrats such as house of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi are being hypocritical because they knew about interrogation techniques such as weatherboarding“waterboarding” as early as 2002.

Yesterday, however, the Senate Judiciary Committee continued its investigation into “what went wrong” by taking evidence from a former FBI interrogator who said the extreme techniques used by the Bush Administration were "ineffective, slow and unreliable".

Ali Soufan, testifying behind a screen to hide his identity, said that his interrogation team obtained a "treasure trove" of information from the terror suspect Abu Zubaydah before CIA contractors took over using simulated drowning, sleep deprivation and other harsh methods that caused the prisoner to "shut down."

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