Senate Intelligence Committee is set to vote on the release of a secret report on Bush-era interrogations of terrorism suspects on Thursday, according to CNN.
Once the 15-member panel votes as expected to declassify a 400-page summary and the key findings of its report, the CIA will start scanning the report's contents for any passages that compromise national security, CNN reported.
The CIA could then remove any key elements of what Senate investigators aim to be the fullest public reckoning of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used on al-Qaida suspects in CIA-run prisons abroad, according to CNN.
A looming problem is the possible involvement of CIA officials who were closely involved in the interrogation program, CNN reported. Former intelligence officials say the agency often farms out declassification sections to officials previously involved in those operations.
The Senate report is interviews with key CIA officials, CNN reported. Those missing include former Bush administration officials involved in authorizing the use of waterboarding and other harsh questioning methods, or managing their use in secret "black site" prisons overseas.
Senate investigators were unable to talk to relevant CIA officials because of legal constraints posed by a separate investigation from 2009 to 2012 and ordered by Attorney General Eric Holder, according to CNN.
At Holder's direction, John Durham, an independent prosecutor, conducted several criminal probes related to interrogation methods and evidence destruction, CNN reported.
Durham's investigations concluded without any charges filed just a few months before the Senate panel voted in December 2012 to approve its 6,300-page report, according to CNN. The CIA declined to comment on the process.
Congressional aides and outside experts familiar with the document say it is highly critical of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, and concludes among other things that such practices provided no key evidence in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, CNN reported. The CIA disputes many of the conclusions in the report.
Senate investigators have griped for years about what they contend is the CIA's failure to be held accountable for the harsh methods used during the George W. Bush administration's war on terror, according to CNN.
Tensions rose last month when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Senate intelligence chairman, took to the Senate floor to accuse the agency of improperly monitoring the computer use of Senate staffers and deleting files, undermining the Constitution's separation of powers, CNN reported.
