U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has questioned "the broader implications" of the timing of the expected release of a Senate report critical of CIA interrogation methods, the State Department said Friday.
Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Kerry spoke to Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein of California about the report. But he apparently did not try to persuade her to postpone it. Psaki said the timing is her choice.
Psaki said Kerry wanted to make sure that the foreign policy implications were appropriately factored into the decision to release the report at this time.
Psaki noted that the United States is leading the fight against Islamic State militants and that a number of Americans are being held hostage around the world.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to release a summary of the 6,200-page report within days. Those who have seen it say it gives more details on such already banned CIA interrogation practices as waterboarding.
The report covers the period after the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, during which U.S. intelligence flew terror suspects to secret overseas interrogation centers.
President Barack Obama stunned Washington in August when he used the word "torture" for the first time when talking about the government's reaction to the September 11 attacks.
