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For all their expressions of outrage and regret, Bush officials have stopped short of admitting to high-level wrongdoing. But late Friday, Pentagon officials said the rules for interrogation in Iraq had been drastically tightened--while still insisting the now banned techniques had never been approved for use. The fallout from the scandal may have a far-reaching impact that goes to the core of how the U.S. fights terrorism. Human rights groups have predicted that the Administration might come to rue the extremes to which it pushed the envelope on interrogation. "After 9/11 the government said we couldn't win the war on terror unless we had these kinds of policies," says Wendy Patten, U.S. advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. "Now we may be losing the war on terror because of these policies." Reversing field completely carries risks: U.S. intelligence and military officials believe that some of the repudiated tactics have elicited vital intelligence from detainees, from Iraq to Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay. Yet the scandal at Abu Ghraib, however revolting, may turn out to be a valuable corrective if it forces Americans to decide how far we are willing to go in the name of protecting ourselves.
--With reporting by Simon Crittle/New York; Viveca Novak, Mark Thompson and Douglas Waller/Washington; and Nathan Thornburgh/Hyndman, Pa.