Barack Obama sent out conflicting signals about how far he will break with President Bush’s counter-terrorism policies yesterday as he unveiled his intelligence team in Washington.

He praised Leon Panetta and Admiral Dennis Blair, picked to be directors of the CIA and national intelligence respectively, for having “core pragmatism” as well as “unquestioned integrity”.

He also confirmed, however, that John Brennan, who was forced to withdraw from contention as CIA chief because of his past support for harsh interrogation and detention techniques, will work with him in the White House as his counter-terrorism adviser. The current head of national intelligence Michael McConnell will continue serving in an advisory role and Mr Obama has also asked that the CIA’s current deputy, Steve Kappes, to remain at the agency.

In his press conference yesterday the President-elect suggested that the intelligence community had learned some “tough lessons” from the debacle of preinvasion claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and bitter controversies since then.

“We must insist on assessments grounded solely in the facts, and not seek information to suit any ideological agenda,” he said. “And we know that to be truly secure, we must adhere to our values as vigilantly as we protect our safety – with no exceptions.”

Mr Obama added that he will not countenance torture or any breach of the Geneva Convention as he acknowledged that disputes over the CIA’s waterboarding and detention programme had undermined America in the battle for “hearts and minds”.

The appointment of his spy chiefs has not gone well this week after Mr Panetta’s name leaked out before Mr Obama had consulted senior members of Congress including Diane Feinstein, the incoming chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Only after Mr Obama telephoned Ms Feinstein with apologies did she soften criticism towards Mr Panetta’s lack of experience in the intelligence field.

Mr Panetta, a former White House chief of staff under former President Clinton, is now expected to emerge unscathed from Senate confirmation hearings.

So will Admiral Blair, even though the man picked to coordinate America’s network of 16 espionage agencies, still faces questioning over how far he sought to restrain Indonesia’s brutal military suppression of East Timor ten years ago.

Liberal activists will, however, be disheartened by the appointment of Mr Brennan. He has defended both the transfer of terror suspects to secret prisons abroad and enhanced interrogation techniques – while also heading the Analysis Group that has earned lucrative Government contracts for supplying private security guards whose actions have been criticised in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a White House adviser he does not need Senate confirmation.

Throughout the past week Mr Obama has largely remained silent on the security crisis engulfing the Middle East but yesterday there were reports that he might order intelligence chiefs to begin covert contacts with Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza.

A spokeswoman for the presidential transition team denied the claims which surfaced in The Guardian newspaper.

She referred to past comments in which Mr Obama had promised that he would keep Hamas isolated until it had completely renounced the use of terrorism, saying: “These statements are accurate. The article you refer to is not.”

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