Release of report on interrogations delayed

updated 9:11 p.m. ET June 19, 2009

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is delaying by a week its release of an internal CIA report on the agency's Bush-era secret detention and interrogation program.

The roughly 150-page report had been expected to be released Friday, but a CIA spokesman said government officials still were poring over the documents.

"We continue to review the document to see what additional material can be released in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act," said CIA spokesman George Little.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a FOIA lawsuit for the release of all documents relating to the CIA's interrogation program, said it was disappointed by the delay.

The legal organization has been waiting for release of a less-censored version of the report for more than a year. In the version released in May 2008, all but a few paragraphs and individual words were blacked out.

"We can only hope that this delay is a sign that the forces of transparency within the Obama administration are winning over the forces of secrecy and that the report will ultimately be released with minimal redactions," ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said in a statement Friday.

Singh also said the agency "should not be permitted to use national security as a pretext for suppressing evidence of its own unlawful conduct." He said: "The American people have a right to know the full truth about the torture program that was authorized in their name."

Little called Singh's characterization of the CIA's program "both wrong and offensive."

The review by the inspector general for the CIA was completed in May 2004.

Comprehensive look
John L. Helgerson, the now-retired CIA inspector who spearheaded the investigation, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the report is "a comprehensive look at everything the agency had been doing related to detention and interrogation."

Helgerson said his review "found a great deal running very well. We also found things to be concerned about." The investigation was conducted in response to concerns expressed by agency employees about the program, he said.

Helgerson said a large portion of the report deals with CIA activities, sources and methods that should remain classified.

The IG review cast doubt on the effectiveness of the harsh interrogation methods employed by CIA interrogators, according to references to the report contained in a slew of Bush-era Justice Department memos declassified this spring by the Justice Department.

Those interrogation methods included waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique that President Barack Obama recently described as a form of torture.

More from msnbc.com ‘Three Cups of Tea’ advice for Obama Will nuclear fusion fade ... or finally flare? World Cup or world stage? N. Korea on display Afghanistan's dogs of war sniff out mines Pontiac hits the end of the road  Counterfeiters pose holiday safety hazard On Twitter: Breaking news updates | Weird and wild

MORE FROM SECURITY

Security Section Front

Records of man claiming to be spy unsealed Some in crew blame captain in pirate raid Blackwater founder feels jilted by leaks Mexico raids underground tunnel into U.S. 9/11 families mixed on Afghan surge Tracking smugglers along the Mexican border Security Section Front   Add Security headlines to your news reader: