WH led security review ahead of report’s release

The White House led an interagency effort over the past five months to prepare diplomatic missions for the release of a Senate Intelligence Committee report detailing harsh CIA interrogation practices.

The State Department and intelligence community worked together to “identify the locations that might be most at risk” and to address concerns the report “could be exploited by violent groups at home and overseas,” senior administration officials told reporters on Tuesday.

{mosads}The State Department “reviewed our security posture in every single post around the world,” an official told reporters on a call shortly after the report’s release. 

Federal law enforcement also coordinated with state and local officials about potential domestic threats, and the Pentagon took steps to better support diplomatic missions.

The administration plans to reassess and readjust its security posture based on intelligence gathered in the coming days.

“We will be watching social media especially to see how terrorists might use this report,” one senior administration official said.

Lawmakers and intelligence officials have warned that the report, which found the CIA engaged in a numerous controversial practices while interrogating terror suspects — including waterboarding, physical abuse and threats of sexual abuse — could result in violent protests or coordinated terrorist action.

“There’s obviously a range of reactions that we might see,” the official said. “The protection of our people are our top priorities.”

Separately, the Obama administration has worked to reassure allies who could be upset by the report’s release, or find their own cooperation in the CIA’s interrogation programs questioned.

Officials say they have stressed that the practices were undertaken during the Bush administration and were ended by President Obama, and argued they should have no bearing on current allied efforts against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“We have explained the importance of the report as part of our political oversight process and underscoring that our security and prosperity are inextricably linked with one another,” an official said.

President Obama personally called Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz earlier Tuesday to discuss the report, which confirms the existence of CIA black sites in Poland.

But while officials Tuesday were willing to discuss the security and diplomatic measures taken over the report, the White House sidestepped some of the most pressing questions raised by the revelations.

Aides to the president declined to weigh in on whether they agreed with the Justice Department’s determination that CIA employees involved in the harsh interrogation practices should not be subject to criminal prosecution.

The White House also would not say whether it agreed with Senate Democrats that the agency misled the Bush White House and Congress about the scope or efficacy of the program.

“All we can speak to is what we have done as an administration,” one official said.

The officials also skirted questions about whether the president believed that the practices depicted in the report rose to the level of torture. President Obama previously said in a news conference that the CIA “tortured some folks” but did not repeat that assertion in a statement following the release of the report.

An official said that, “as a general matter,” the president’s position was “that we committed torture.”

“He’s been clear on that point for many years,” the official said, while adding that “we’re not going to go case-by-case and affix a label to each action.”

Officials also said they would not “engage in this debate” over whether intelligence gathered had validated the interrogation techniques.

“I think that would miss the overriding point that the president has made clear, which is that some of these techniques were contrary to our values and were, overall, detrimental to our security, given, among other things, the response overseas to the fact that the United States has engaged in these techniques,” one said.

The aide also argued that they could not know “what other interrogation methods may have yielded.”

Administration officials also declined to say whether CIA employees who had participated in the activities described by the report had been punished or fired. Officials said some members of the intelligence community had been referred for internal review based on their actions.

Although President Obama determined such a program shouldn’t have happened, “that doesn’t condemn everyone who had contact with the program as a consequence,” one official argued.

Another official acknowledged the release of the report “can be challenging for the workforce,” but offered a full-throated endorsement of CIA Director John Brennan and said the actions described in the report were “not the norm of behavior” in the intelligence community.”

“If it weren’t for CIA and intel community, more Americans would have been killed since 9/11,” the official said. “They have saved lives.”