RAW DATA: Timeline of Obama Administration Comments on Bush-Era 'Torture' Probe

Jan. 11, 2009, on ABC News' "This Week" 

President Obama: "We're still evaluating how we are going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions and so forth. And obviously, we're going to be looking at past practices. And I don't believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand, I also have a belief that we need to look forward, as opposed to looking backwards. And part of my job is to make sure that, for example, at the CIA you've got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don't want them to suddenly feel like they've got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering up."

April 16, 2009, in written statement from the White House

Obama: "It is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution. ... This is a time for reflection, not retribution. I respect the strong views and emotions that these issues evoke. We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history. But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past."

April 19, 2009, on ABC News' "This Week"

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel: "(Obama) believes that people in good faith were operating with the guidance they were provided. They shouldn't be prosecuted."

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos: "But what about those who devised the policy?"

Emanuel: "Yeah, but those who devised the policy, he believes that they were -- should not be prosecuted either, and it's not the place that we go. As he said in that letter, and I would really recommend people look at the full statement, not the letter, the statement. In that second paragraph. This is not a time for retribution. It's a time for reflection. It is not a time to use our energy and our time in looking back and in a sense of anger and retribution. We have a lot to do to protect America. What people need to know, this practice and technique we don't use anymore. He banned it."

April 20, 2009, at White House press briefing 

Question: "So I understand, you're saying that people in the CIA who followed through in what they were told was legal, they should not be prosecuted. But why not the Bush administration lawyers who, in the eyes of a lot of your supporters on the left, twisted the law -- why are they not being held accountable?"

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: "The president is focused on looking forward, that's why."

April 21, 2009, in president's press briefing with reporters 

Obama: "For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it's appropriate for them to be prosecuted. With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the perimeters of various laws, and I don't want to prejudge that. I think that there are a host of very complicated issues involved there. As a general view, I think that we should be looking forward and not backwards. I do worry about this getting so politicized that we cannot function effectively and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations.

"And so if and when there needs to be a further accounting of what took place during this period, I think for Congress to examine ways that it can be done in a bipartisan fashion, outside of the typical hearing process that can sometimes break down and break it entirely along party lines, to the extent that there are independent participants who are above reproach and have credibility, that would probably be a more sensible approach to take.

"I'm not suggesting that, you know, that should be done, but I'm saying, if you've got a choice, I think it's very important for the American people to feel as if this is not being dealt with to provide one side or another political advantage, but rather is being done in order to learn some lessons so that we move forward in an effective way."

April 21, 2009, at White House press briefing 

Question: "It sounded as though the president took a somewhat different policy today than his chief of staff did on Sunday regarding possible prosecution of those who devised the policies. ...Is that a shift in position?"

Gibbs: "Well, let's -- instead of referring to what anybody might have said, I think it's important -- or anything that I might have said -- it's important to refer to what the president said, and what he said over the course of many months, in all honestly, because this dates back to questions that has received in press conferences or even during the transition, and that is, very much as he said -- reiterated today, that he says as a general deal, I think we should be looking forward and not backward.

"The president has also said he does not believe that people are above the rule of law. And the president stated accurately that any determination as to whether a law was broken would rightly be made not by the president but by the chief law enforcement officer of the United States."