The dark side : the inside story of how the War on Terror turned into a war on American ideals / Jane Mayer.

"With a new afterword."--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [380]-388) and index.

1. Panic -- 2. Blame -- 3. The warning -- 4. Men of zeal -- 5. Detainee 001 -- 6. Outsourcing torture -- 7. Inside the black sites -- 8. The experiment -- 9. The memo -- 10. A deadly interrogation -- 11. Blowback -- 12. Cover-up.

In the days immediately following September 11th, the most powerful people in the country were panic-stricken. Radical decisions about how to combat terrorists and strengthen national security were made in a state of chaos and fear, but the key players, Vice President Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, used the crisis to further a long-held agenda to enhance presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history, and obliterate Constitutional protections that define the very essence of the American experiment. This is a dramatic account of how the United States made terrible decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world--decisions that not only violated the Constitution, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. Whatever the short-term gains, there were incalculable losses in terms of moral standing, our country's place in the world, and its sense of itself.--From publisher description.