WASHINGTON — An executive order apparently drafted by the Trump administration calls for a policy review that could authorize the CIA to reopen “black site” prisons overseas and potentially restart an interrogation program that was dismantled in 2009 after using methods widely condemned as torture.

The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, would revoke former President Barack Obama's decision to end the CIA program. It would also require national security officials to evaluate whether the agency should resume interrogating terrorism suspects.

The unsigned draft represents the clearest signal from President Donald Trump that he intends to at least explore ways to fulfill campaign threats to return the CIA to a role that supporters claim produced critical intelligence on al-Qaida, but ended in a swirl of criminal investigations, strained relationships with allies, and laws banning the use of waterboarding and other brutal interrogation tactics.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer cast doubt on the provenance of the draft document Wednesday, saying that “it is not a White House document.”

It's not yet clear whether Trump will sign the draft order, or whether senior members of his administration who have been skeptical of such plans, including Defense Secretary James Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, were consulted.

Trump declared Wednesday that he believes torture works and, in an interview with ABC News, he said he would wage war against Islamic State militants with the singular goal of keeping the U.S. safe. Asked specifically about the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, Trump cited the extremist group's own atrocities and said: “We have to fight fire with fire.”

He added that he wants to do “everything within the bounds of what you're allowed to do legally.”

Members of Congress denounced the draft order, which was first reported by The New York Times on Wednesday. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that Trump “can sign whatever executive orders he likes. But the law is the law. We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America.”

Human rights organizations expressed outrage.

The draft order “authorizes the CIA to restart their detention program, which was the source of so much of the torture that undermined our national security,” said Elisa Massimino, president of Human Rights First. Those policies “made fighting the war harder and strengthened the resolve of our enemies.”

The draft, labeled “Detention and Interrogation of Enemy Combatants,” notes that the United States has “refrained from exercising certain authorities critical to its defense” in the war against terrorism, including “a halt to all classified interrogations by the Central Intelligence Agency.”

The document stops short of instructing the CIA to rebuild prisons or resume interrogating terrorism suspects. Instead it calls for reviews leading to recommendations to the president on whether he should “reinstate a program of interrogation 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 CIA.

The order would vacate Obama's decisions to dismantle the CIA program.

Any attempt to resume the CIA's use of coercive methods at overseas prisons would face major obstacles. Among them is whether another country would be willing to allow such a facility after those that did so more than a decade ago — including Lithuania, Poland and Thailand — faced international condemnation for their complicity.

CIA veterans have said the agency has no desire to return to an assignment “that continues to have damaging repercussions. ”

Associated Press contributed.