The Debate Over Torture

Bush has floated above the fray, blithely declaring that the "United States doesn't do torture," without getting entangled in debates over torture lite. A White House official who did not wish to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter claims that Bush has personally reached out to McCain to seek a compromise. McCain told NEWSWEEK that he had briefly spoken with the president by phone.

And what of the interrogators themselves? Top agency officials under Goss are supporting their director, but farther down the chain of command, there is uneasiness, if not downright resistance. As The Washington Post, NEWSWEEK and others have reported, the CIA has at least a score of detainees tucked away in secret places it doesn't know how to dispose of without legal procedures. "Where's the off button?" says one retired CIA official who prefers to stay undercover. In the hands of President Bush--if he is willing to openly face some tough choices.

With Richard Wolffe, Mark Hosenball, Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman, John Barry, Stuart Taylor Jr. and Steve Tuttle in Washington and Dan Ephron in Jerusalem

© 2005