The Trump administration will order a review that could lead to the reopening of CIA "black site" prisons overseas that were used to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects, according to a draft order obtained Wednesday by the Washington Post.
The three-page order would also reinstate a Bush-era interrogation program that was shut down in 2009 by former President Barack Obama, who said its methods constituted torture.
The draft, called "Detention and Interrogation of Enemy Combatants," charges that the U.S. has "refrained from exercising certain authorities critical to its defense," including the use of classified interrogations by the CIA and the detainment of "enemy combatants" at the Guantanamo Bay military prison.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday that the draft was not a White House document.
If President Donald Trump decides to sign the order, his administration would also have the authority reverse a directive issued by Obama that provides the International Committee of the Red Cross with access to detainees in American custody, according to the New York Times.
Though the order does not direct the CIA to reopen its secret prisons or restore enhanced interrogation methods, it does pave the way for such actions to occur.
The draft order directs the Defense Department to recommend to Trump whether he should "reinstate a program of high-value alien terrorists to be operated outside the United States and whether such a program should include the use of detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency."
Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), a Vietnam war veteran who opposes torture, condemned the order, telling the Post that Trump could "sign whatever executive orders he likes, but the law is law."
"We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America," Mccain said.
Trump pledged on the campaign trail to bring back waterboarding and a "hell of a lot worse," claiming that "torture works." It is unclear when Trump would sign the document.