White House 'accidentally emailed' torture report talking points to AP reporter

U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell applaud at the North Atlantic Council Summit in Prague November 21, 2002. Between them is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to their right, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. [REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque]

A White House staff member ‘accidentally emailed’ non-classified talking points about a classified torture report to an Associated Press reporter.

The document says a Senate report concludes the CIA initially withheld information about torture and secret prisons from then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and others.

A Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after the 9/11 attacks concludes that the agency initially kept the secretary of state and some U.S. ambassadors in the dark about harsh techniques and secret prisons, according to a document circulating among White House staff.

The still-classified report also says some ambassadors who were informed about interrogations of al-Qaida detainees at so-called black sites in their countries were instructed not to tell their superiors at the State Department, says the document, which the White House accidentally emailed to an Associated Press reporter.

Read the full AP item: “Powell maybe not told early about CIA techniques”