The Senate Just Released The CIA Torture Report
You can read the full report here. This post will be continuously updated with details.
Ahead of its release, officials stepped up security at US installations around the world as the report includes violent and graphic details of tactics used by CIA agents under a program authorized by Bush in the wake of the September 11th attacks in 2001. Critics have said many of these techniques were torture.
"There are some indications ... that the release of the report could lead to a greater risk that is posed to U.S. facilities and individuals all around the world," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at a press conference on Monday. "So, the administration has taken the prudent steps to ensure that the proper security precautions are in place at U.S. facilities around the globe."
Bush stopped much of the program, which involved terrorism suspects being rendered to facilities where they were detained and interrogated, before he left office in 2009. Obama then banned so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" when he took office.
The Senate Intelligence Committee spent several years compiling this report. Due to the potentially explosive nature of its findings and fears the details could lead to international tensions, the release of the report is controversial.
Though the White House backed the release of the report, Secretary of State John Kerry apparently expressed some concern about security issues last week. A pair of Republican lawmakers, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) also issued a joint statement on Monday criticizing the decision to release the report.
"We are concerned that this release could endanger the lives of Americans overseas, jeopardize U.S. relations with foreign partners, potentially incite violence, create political problems for our allies, and be used as a recruitment tool for our enemies," Rubio and Risch said.
(Reporting by, Jeremy Bender, Colin Campbell, Pamela Engel, Erin Fuchs, Armin Rosen, and Hunter Walker)