President Barack Obama, making his first trip to CIA headquarters April 20, acknowledged that agency officials had expressed what he called "understandable anxiety and concern" about his decision to release confidential memos detailing brutal interrogation techniques used by agency operatives. Obama said it was time to admit "mistakes" and "move forward." Among other things, the memos revealed that two captured al-Qaeda operatives—Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—were subjected to waterboarding a total of 266 times.

US President Barack Obama April 16 issued a statement asserting his intention not to investigate individuals who used or authorized "enhanced interrogation techniques"—the same day the Department of Justice released memos outlining CIA use of these techniques. The president urged the country to look forward, rather than to the past, saying:

Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohammad El Gharani has alleged that he has been recently abused by guards at the military prison, according to an April 14 report by AlJazeera. El Gharani, a Chadian national, reportedly made the allegations during a phone interview with the Middle Eastern news service, saying that guards regularly beat him, have used tear gas against him, and have broken his teeth. He said the abuse started before US President Barack Obama took office, but has still continued.

The administration of President Barack Obama will appeal a ruling made last week by Judge John Bates of the US District Court for the District of Columbia that allowed detainees being held by the US in Afghanistan to proceed with habeas corpus challenges to their detention. Word of the appeal came April 10 in a motion filed by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) seeking certification of the court's order so that the DoJ can file an interlocutory appeal of the ruling, which approved habeas challenges by four foreign-born detainees being held at Bagram Air Base.

CIA director Leon Panetta said in an official statement April 9 that the agency will no longer use secret overseas prisons or "black sites" to hold terrorism suspects, adding that plans are being made to shut the remaining overseas detention facilities down. Panetta also wrote that he has ordered that the "contracts for site security be promptly terminated." The statement did not give details as to where such detention facilities have been or are still located.

US military judge Colonel Patrick Parrish ruled April 7 that Pentagon officials lacked the authority to dismiss Lieutenant Commander William Kuebler as defense counsel for Canadian Guantánamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr. Chief defense counsel Colonel Peter Masciola reassigned Kuebler earlier this month after Kuebler filed a formal complaint alleging that Masciola had a conflict of interest in overseeing the case. Parrish ruled that, under the rules of military tribunals, only a judge could remove a lawyer under such circumstances. Kuebler further alleges that he was barred from accessing files and resources that he needed to work on Khadr's defense. Kuebler continues to maintain that Khadr should be sent back to Canada.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled April 7 that US courts cannot prevent the government from transferring detainees held at Guantánamo Bay to foreign countries on the grounds that detainees may face prosecution or torture in the foreign country. The three-judge panel found it had jurisdiction to hear the habeas corpus claims brought by nine Uighur Muslim detainees under Boumediene v. Bush. Relying heavily on the US Supreme Court opinion Munaf v. Geren, the court then overturned a DC District Court decision that would have required the government to give a 30-day notice before sending detainees to foreign nations, ruling that the executive branch has broad authority to order transfers. The court noted that the US government has in place policies against sending detainees to countries that may torture them and concluded "the district court may not question the Government’s determination that a potential recipient country is not likely to torture a detainee."

Medical professionals violated codes of medical ethics by participating in and assisting in ill-treatment of Guantánamo Bay detainees, says a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, made public April 6. The report, which was written in 2007 based on interviews of fourteen detainees, alleges that doctors and psychologists in Guantánamo at times stopped waterboarding and other forms of ill-treatment, and at other times modified the severity of the treatment to allow it to continue.