The U.S. Department of Justice officially confirmed Thursday that a controversial Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's use of banned torture techniques will be released next week, but following the announcement, Secretary of State John Kerry personally called the head of that committee and asked her to delay the release.
Kerry called chairman of the Senate Select Committee, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., early Friday morning and said releasing the report next week could complicate relationships with foreign countries at a time when relations are already strained, adding that an imminent release could put overseas U.S. troops and facilities at risk, reported Bloomberg.
"What he raised was timing of report release, because a lot is going on in the world - including parts of the world particularly implicated - and wanting to make sure foreign policy implications were being appropriately factored into timing," an administration official told Bloomberg. "He had a responsibility to do so because this isn't just an intel issue - it's a foreign policy issue."
The CIA torture report, costing $40 million to produce over five years, examines the cases of 20 high-value detainees who were subjected to extreme, and often illegal, interrogation tactics while being held at secret CIA black sites in Europe. In all 20 cases, the report concluded that the program was not only ineffective, but also the intelligence gathered from the interrogated detainees was neither "unique" or "valuable," according to VICE.
Feinstein called the report "one of the most significant oversight efforts in the history of the United States Senate, and by far the most important oversight activity ever conducted by this committee."
On Wednesday, Lawmakers advocating for the immediate release of the report threatened to circumvent the Obama administration by unilaterally releasing the report themselves, reported The Huffington Post.
"This report must see the light of day before Congress adjourns this year," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "And if the Executive Branch isn't willing to cooperate the Senate should be willing to act unilaterally to ensure that happens."
"Americans will be profoundly disturbed and angered when they read it," Wyden continued. "But it's important to get the facts out even if they make people uncomfortable, because that's the only way to prevent the mistakes of the past from being repeated. It is the only way to make sure torture never happens again and make America's intelligence agencies stronger in the long run."
