CIA Torture Report to be Released
A long-delayed Senate report on the US Central Intelligence Agency's brutal interrogation of suspected Al-Qaeda operatives will be made public on Tuesday, the White House said.
While heavily redacted, the report is expected to be a damning indictment of a secret program to question more than 100 detainees using what President Barack Obama has already called torture.
"We have heard from the committee that they do intend to release the report [Tuesday]," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, following reports of a last minute bid to halt its publication.
Earnest said that "prudent steps" had been taken to reinforce security at US facilities and diplomatic missions abroad in case the report, much of which has already been leaked, triggers anger.
"That said, the administration strongly supports the release of this declassified summary of the report," Earnest said, underlining the point that Obama has outlawed harsh interrogation methods.
The report is understood to cover the treatment of around 100 terror suspects rounded up by US operatives between 2001 and 2009 and subjected to waterboarding, stress positions and other harsh methods.
The CIA's defenders insist the methods saved American lives by helping to uncover Al-Qaeda's network, while critics say they ran contrary to US values and hardened anti-American attitudes.
