Bush & Obama
US president-elect Barack Obama's advisers say he is unlikely to radically revamp notorious intelligence policies of the Bush administration.

"He's going to take a very centrist approach to these issues," AP quoted Roger Cressey, a former counterterrorism official, as saying.

"Whenever an administration swings too far on the spectrum left or right, we end up getting ourselves in big trouble," he added.

During his campaign, Obama criticized many of President George W. Bush's policies for promoting "excessive secrecy, indefinite detention, warrantless wiretapping and 'enhanced interrogation techniques' like simulated drowning that qualify as torture through any careful measure of the law or appeal to human decency."

He emphasized the CIA's interrogation program should follow the same rules that apply to the military, prohibiting the use of techniques such as water boarding.

But Obama has recently voted for a White House-backed law to enhance eavesdropping powers for the National Security Agency, while maintaining his opposition to granting legal immunity for telecommunications companies which facilitate warrantless surveillance. The law, however, included an immunity provision.

The decision comes amid calls from civil-liberties groups in the Democratic Party which are demanding reversal of the White House's legislations backing the use of torture by the Central Intelligence Agency, and expansion of domestic spy powers.

One current government official said Obama could take a similar approach to revising the rules for CIA interrogations, possibly deciding to allow the CIA in certain cases to use techniques not approved by the military, with greater oversight though.

Civil-liberties and human-rights advocates, who helped Obama win election, are also seeking extensive investigations into possible illegal actions the Bush administration committed when trying to track down terrorists after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"We need to understand what happened," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office.