Some named in CIA's ‘torture' report denied chance to read it

ASPEN, Colo. -- About a dozen former CIA officials named in a classified Senate report on decade-old agency interrogation practices were notified in recent days that they would be able to review parts of the document in a secure room in suburban Washington after signing a secrecy agreement.

Then, on Friday, many were told they would not be able to see it, after all. Some of them were furious, while Democratic Senate aides were angry they were given the chance in the first place.

It's the latest chapter in the drama and recriminations that have been playing out behind the scenes in connection with what some call the Senate torture report, a summary of which is being declassified and is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

"I am outraged," said John Rizzo, one of the former officials who was offered, and then refused, a chance to see the summary report before publication. He retired in 2009 as the CIA's top lawyer after playing a key role in the interrogation program.

"They are accusing people of misleading Congress, of misleading the Justice Department, and they never even asked to talk to us," he said. "And now they won't let us read the report before it is made public."

The 6,300-page report, along with a CIA rebuttal, represents the most detailed accounting to date of a set of bitterly controversial interrogation, rendition and detention practices the CIA carried out in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks -- practices many Americans now consider to have been immoral or illegal.

President Barack Obama stopped the practices when he took office, but he decided against a "truth commission" to examine what happened. Criminal investigations conducted in secret resulted in no charges. Advocacy groups say the Senate report's 600-page executive summary will be the last chance for public accountability.