April 23, 2009

editorial

Let in the light

The Dark Side, by New Yorker writer Jane Mayer, is a powerful and deeply disturbing book. Subtitled The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, the book tells how a small group of Bush administration leaders came to undermine more than 200 years of American democratic values, ultimately embracing torture.

When I picked up the book at the Yellow Springs library a few weeks ago, I didn’t exactly want to read it, but felt that I should. I trusted this writer. In the 13 New Yorker articles Mayer wrote on the same topic, her reporting seemed cautious and solid.

So I expected the book to be credible, but not compelling. But compelling it is. It’s compelling because it’s a story of a democracy teetering dangerously close to the edge. It’s a story of, as Bush State Department Counsel Philip Zelikow said, “fear and anxiety being manipulated by zealots and fools.” And it’s the story of a passionate struggle for the soul of our country, carried out by those at the highest level of government. On one side were Cheney, Addington, Gonzales and associates (with Bush an easily manipulated and uncurious partner) and on the other, a determined group of administration lawyers, CIA and FBI leaders. Many, many people within the Bush administration cared deeply about American decency and were horrified by the administration’s turn towards cruelty.

The Dark Side makes clear that human rights abuses weren’t only committed against a few Al Qaeda leaders, nor were they committed by one or two “bad apples.” Rather, this was a nation’s policy, created in secrecy by its top leaders. By fall 2008, more than 600 American military and civilian personnel were believed to have abused more than 460 detainees. Many human rights abuses took place at Guantanamo Bay, even though a top CIA analyst who visited the prison estimated that fully one third of the 600 detainees (imprisoned for years) had no connection to terrorism at all.

Perhaps a case could be made for using harsh interrogation techniques if doing so saved lives. But it does not. Many intelligence professionals protested that the confessions would prove unreliable. And they did. After several years of this program, according to Mayer, there’s no evidence that information elicited during torture thwarted a single terrorist attack.

In the last week, Bush administration memos released by President Obama brought into public view the depths to which this country sank. Although initially the president urged Americans not to lay blame, he has recently opened the door to holding those responsible for creating the policy accountable. This accountability seems critical. Torture is not a partisan issue. Democrats and Republicans alike deserve the opportunity to understand how things went so wrong. Only then can we ensure it won’t happen again.

—Diane Chiddister