White House, C.I.A. Working Together to Thwart Release of Agency's Torture Report - Senate Democrats

White House, C.I.A. Working Together to Thwart Release of Agency's Torture Report - Senate Democrats 21 Nov 2014 In a tense confrontation with President Obama's closest adviser on Thursday, a group of Senate Democrats accused the White House of trying to censor significant details in a voluminous report on the use of torture by the Central Intelligence Agency. During a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill with Denis R. McDonough, the White House chief of staff, the senators said that the White House was siding with the C.I.A. and trying to thwart negotiations over the report's release. The negotiations have dragged on for months because of a dispute over the C.I.A.'s demand that pseudonyms of agency officers [war criminals] be deleted from the report. The C.I.A., supported by the White House, has argued that even without using the real names of the officers, their identities could still be revealed.