A top US government official has said the release of a CIA torture report could spark an unprecedented backlash against Washington and cause "violence and deaths" abroad.
Tensions have grown within the US defence and intelligence service, ahead of the release of the report that gives details of the horrific torture and humiliating treatments meted out to suspects after the 9/11 terrorist attack.
"I think this is a terrible idea," Rep. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said, opposing the Secretary of State John Kerry's decision on Friday to reconsider the timing of the release of the report.
"Our foreign partners are telling us this will cause violence and deaths...Foreign leaders have approached the government and said, 'You do this, this will cause violence and deaths.' Our own intelligence community has assessed that this will cause violence and deaths."
The US embassies around the world are already in alert for any untoward incidents with all the US facilities around the world being urged to review security as officials brace for the reaction. Concerns are particularly high in areas considered to be hot spots, in the Middle East and the North Africa, reported ABC news.
This comes as CIA and the Bush administration have already been widely criticised for the post 9/11 interrogation techniques at the so-called "black sites" across the world.
Reports have suggested that the impending official report contains never-before-seen details and descriptions of what CIA operatives did during the secret interrogation – including how prisoners were deprived of sleep, confined in small spaces, humiliated and tortured via the drowning process known as 'water-boarding'.
Prisoners were also said to be sexually demeaned as CIA continued aggressive interrogations even after they retrieved as much information as they could from the suspects.
The 480-page report – a summary of a still-classified 6,000-page study – is expected to be made public next week. When released, it will be the first public accounting of the CIA's alleged use of torture on suspected al-Qaeda detainees held in secret places in Europe and Asia in the three years after the 9/11 attack.
