Did CIA 'enhanced interrogation techniques' work or not?

President Obama banned the CIA from using these methods three months ago and shut down the agency's secret prisons. He has since created a task force to study the effectiveness of different interrogation techniques. Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee has also begun their own review.

"To the best of our knowledge, such a review has not been done before," a Senate aide told The Los Angeles Times.

Although the Obama administration has said it will not prosecute CIA agents who used these methods, ABC News reports that in addition to many former CIA directors, several spies have begun speaking out.

Other former CIA officials have also spoken out against the Obama administration's decision to release the memos, saying it has put intelligence gathering operations at risk and demoralized the agency writ large.

"People in the intelligence community have the sense that they're really not being backed up, that this administration is not really giving them their cover that they feel they need," former intelligence officer Mark Lowenthal said.

As the debate continues to intensify about what actions should or shouldn't be taken against former CIA officials, The Times of London reports that the Obama administration may have unexpectedly opened a can of worms. While Obama has said he will not prosecute CIA operatives, under the US Constitution he has no power to determine who should and should not be put on trial.

Amid the list of challenges facing Obama – namely the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – The Times reports that "frustration at the White House was palpable" as the public and government officials continued to focus on the memos. "We really do want to move on and we don't want to look back. It can absorb a lot of time and attention and we have a lot to do," said a senior White House aide cited in the Times piece.

The release of the memos may affect Obama's popularity. The President currently has a 61.8 percent approval rating. [Editor's note: The original version misstated President Obama's approval rating in Congress.]

In a collection of experts' reviews of Obama's first 100 days in office, an Atlanta Journal Constitution article indicates that Obama may have mishandled the release of the memos, which could hurt him moving ahead.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution cites Audrey Haynes, an associate professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, as saying the following:

Releasing the memos on torture will be a distraction to other areas; likely this information would have come out anyhow given the various lawsuits being pursued in this area, but the timing could have been delayed, perhaps a bipartisan commission utilized.

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