Why Torture Is Still An Option

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For the next nine months, says a person briefed on activity in the program, some at the agency developed a bias for killing its targets instead of bringing them in for questioning, though sources add that ground conditions make capture impossible anyway. Goss's suspension order left officers in the agency's directorate of operations, says the source, repeatedly asking the question, What are we going to do with these guys if we capture them? So far in 2006, as government sources and public reports indicate, few if any terrorist suspects have been captured by the CIA. But at least four--including bombmaker Abu Khabab al- Masri, on the FBI's most-wanted list--have been killed, in most cases by remotely fired missiles from Predator drones.

The rules adopted last week may mean a return to the practice of capture and question. But question how? Just what interrogation methods are off the table now? Depends on whom you talk to. McCain, who along with Graham and Warner had fought the Administration on some of the most coercive methods, insisted to reporters last week that the harshest techniques--such as waterboarding, stress positions, extreme sleep deprivation and hypothermia--could now be illegal. "For all the gloating from the Administration," says Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch, "they are not getting what they want on torture." And what methods are O.K.? No one inside or outside the CIA will say. Which may mean we're going to be fighting on "the dark side" for some time to come.