President Obama has rejected a request by seven former heads of the CIA to end the inquiry into allegations of abuse of suspects held by the agency, BBC reported.
"Nobody's above the law," Mr Obama said in an interview with the American CBS television programme Face The Nation.
The US Attorney General Eric Holder last month named a prosecutor to examine whether the CIA had gone beyond approved interrogation methods.
The former heads wrote to Mr Obama saying the probe would hamper CIA work.
They said the cases had already been investigated during the Bush administration and lawyers had declined to prosecute in all but one.
"This approach will seriously damage the willingness of intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country," their letter read.
"In our judgment, such risk-taking is vital to success in the long and difficult fight against terrorists who continue to threaten us."
The former CIA chiefs served under Republican and Democratic presidents.
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