WASHINGTON, DC - The impending release of a highly controversial report detailing the Central Intelligence Agency's "enhanced interrogation techniques" following the 9/11 terror attacks has defense officials and Republican lawmakers in an uproar over its consequences on U.S. national security and foreign policy.

Like Us on Facebook

The 480-page report, which is slated to be released early this week, is a condensed version of a 6,000-page account prepared by the Senate Intelligence Committee in December 2012. Congressional records indicate the report contains information on the CIA's specific interrogation tactics and its effectiveness in gleaning significant intelligence.

More notable however, is the disclosure of U.S. allies' participation in the CIA's program through the operation of "black sites" where terror suspects are held and interrogated. Some allege the governments of Thailand, Poland, Romania and Lithuania are involved in the project.

U.S. officials have lobbied against the declassification of such information, claiming that it could risk the lives of U.S. nationals overseas and compromise the country's relations with foreign governments.

On Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry called on Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) to reconsider the timing of the report's release and warned against the potential damages it could inflict on U.S. national security interests, including the campaign against the ISIS and the plight of American hostages worldwide.

Republican senators and defense officials have long fought with Democratic lawmakers over the disclosure of the so-called "black site" hosts, which has been one of the few remaining classified information in the report, said former CIA acting general counsel John Rizzo.

Feinstein has acquiesced to mask the countries' names through code names such as "Country A." Even so, officials have expressed concern that black site locations could be identified by referencing other information detailed in the report.

Meanwhile, former CIA officials sought to reassure the Bush team of the agency's transparency during the course of the program as part of efforts to lobby for the group's support amid allegations that the CIA had misled officials over the extent of interrogation tactics it employed, which Democratic lawmakers have labeled as "torture."

Earlier, Feinstein accused the agency of carrying out "brutal" and "un-American" interrogation tactics, while President Barack Obama had bluntly acknowledged in August that U.S. intelligence operatives had "tortured some folks" in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Former Bush-era officials have rejected the notion that the agency had misled them and defended the program.

They argued that the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" - which reportedly involved sleep deprivation, humiliation and water boarding - had provided crucial information that ultimately led to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's assassination.

Feinstein has asserted however, that bin Laden's whereabouts were gleaned from FBI's Ali Soufan's interrogations, and not the CIA's.

TagsCIA interrogation report, Dianne Feinstein, enhanced interrogation techniques, Waterboarding, 9/11 terror attacks, U.S. national security, politics, Black site, CIA, torture tactics, bush administration, "Black Sites"