The Dark Side, Part 6 of 6

In the sixth and final section of The Dark Side, Jane Mayer critically reviews the actions taken by the Bush Administration following the events on September 11th. She begins by questioning the morals of the administration and the major players in the administration. She refers mainly to the inhumane treatment of prisoners in black sites and detention camps around the world. She says, "Just because you think you can do these things, it doesn't mean you should. There's a gap between what's right, and what's legal" (Mayer 310). In defense, the Bush Administration enacted certain policies only to improve the welfare of the country. Such atrocious acts would not be committed if they could not be justified; the United States sought to obtain valuable intelligence about terrorists abroad. Mayer cites Jay Rockefeller, the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, as having said, "I have heard nothing to suggest that information obtained from enhanced interrogation techniques has prevented an imminent terrorist attack, And I have herd nothing that makes me think the information obtained from these techniques could not have been obtained though traditional interrogation methods" (Mayer 330). She does, however, concede that the extreme measures taken by the administration are understandable seeing as the weeks following 9/11 were frantic, but she then goes on to reprimand the administration for continuing its policies for seven years after the event.

"The Bush Administration invoked fear flowing from the attacks on September 11 to institute a policy of deliberate cruelty that would have been unthinkable on September 10." (Mayer 328). Mayer vehemently criticizes the Bush administration for the policies it instituted saying that the administration played off of and injected fear into the minds of the American people. It was this that allowed the many legal follies to go unnoticed during Bush's years as president. Angrily, Mayer goes on to refute one of Bush's most prideful statements, that there hasn't been a terrorist attack on US soil since September 11th. Mayer argues that, while Bush would like to believe it is his success as president that has caused this to occur, it could simply be that there has been an absence of terrorist threats. Finally, Mayer takes a swing at the Terrorist Surveillance Program which, according to a former official of the NSA, "has produced nothing" (Mayer 333). The narrative concludes with the final thought that while the Bush Administration may have meant well in trying to protect America, its expansion of presidential powers, its inhumane treatment of 'terrorists,' and its curbing of civil liberties were inexcusable. Most of all, though, the mistake between CIA officials in not communicating with the FBI about terror suspects that would later be involved in 9/11...was the biggest blunder of all.