Interrogation Debate Sharply Divided Bush White House (Boston Globe)

[struggle4progress]

MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE
Published: Monday, May 4, 2009 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, May 4, 2009 at 5:16 a.m.

... The real trouble began on May 7, 2004, the day the C.I.A. inspector general, John L. Helgerson, completed a devastating report. In thousands of pages, it challenged the legality of some interrogation methods, found that interrogators were exceeding the rules imposed by the Justice Department and questioned the effectiveness of the entire program ...

But Bush administration officials could not agree about what to do with the agency’s prisoners. Already, disclosures of secret prisons in Eastern Europe had prompted the C.I.A. to fly many in a hurry to Afghanistan ...

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales proposed a middle ground: move the detainees to Guantánamo but never acknowledge having held them in secret prisons. This proposal, lampooned by some officials as the “immaculate conception” option, was dismissed as unrealistic ...

But Mr. Cheney and his allies secured other victories. The executive order preserved the secret jails and authorized a laundry list of coercive methods. Ms. Rice, several officials say, declined to endorse the order but chose not to block it ...

http://www.ocala.com/article/20090504/ZNYT02/905043002?Title=Interrogation-Debate-Sharply-Divided-Bush-White-House