(CIA)
WASHINGTON — The Joint Staff has warned all combatant commands to be on alert for possible violence following the upcoming release of a Senate intelligence committee report on CIA interrogation methods during President George W. Bush’s administration.
The report, which the White House says will be released Tuesday, is expected to detail and condemn what many consider acts of torture carried out against terrorist suspects in the years after the 9/11 attacks.
The report is an unclassified summary of a longer 6,200 page classified document. Democrats on the committee and their staffs spent six years reviewing CIA documents about the agency’s interrogation programs, which included controversial tactics like waterboarding. Those practices were prohibited after President Barack Obama came into office.
U.S. officials have expressed concern that the revelations could provoke attacks against Americans and U.S. facilities overseas.
Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly warned committee chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., of the potential consequences of releasing the report at this time.
“He wouldn’t have called if he didn’t feel that it was important to have a conversation about the implications of the timing,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday.
Psaki declined to discuss what the implications might be.
The House intelligence committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., told CNN that the intelligence community believes that the report will lead to violence and deaths.
The Pentagon shares those concerns.
“There is certainly the possibility that the release of this report could cause unrest, and therefore the Joint Staff has directed the combatant commands to take the appropriate force protection measures,” Defense Department spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters Monday.
He said the security measures taken would vary be region, depending on threat level assessments.
Military facilities and personnel in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility – which covers the Middle East and most of the Muslim world – are considered the most vulnerable.
Warren declined to provide details of the specific steps that military commanders are taking to enhance security at U.S. bases.
Britain and Canada have reportedly closed their embassies in Cairo in part in anticipation of a backlash against the report.
On Thursday, the U.S. State Department asked all chiefs of mission around the world to review their security postures in advance of the upcoming release of the report, Psaki said.
She would not discuss any specific security measures that are being taken.
Warren would not say whether the military presence at U.S. diplomatic facilities overseas have been beefed up.
Warren was asked if the Pentagon believes the report should not be released due to security concerns.
“We do not have a view…That’s really a policy question,” he said. “Our focus is to ensure the protection of our personnel and facilities around the world.”
Concern about attacks against Westerners by violent Islamic extremists has increased in recent months following the rise of the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria. In October, two uniformed Canadian soldiers were killed in Canada in separate attacks by men who had converted to Islam.
On Monday, a female American teacher was stabbed to death by a veiled woman in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi. Emirates officials said the victim was chosen simply because of her nationality.
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