Currently Washington is being consumed and tortured by the controversy over President George Bush and his adminstration’s many declarations that “We don’t torture” and the revelation that indeed the US did. And such torture occurred before, during and after the infamy of “We don’t torture”. The Obama administration appears to agree with Republican pundit Peggy Noonan(see her remarks on the April 19th This Week on ABC/TV) who says “let bygones be bygones”. Others like Paul Krugman say this is too important to shove under the rug.
Implied in all this to and fro-ing is that waterboarding and other torture techniques were “productive”. But the following report asks some fundamental questions about exactly how productive some torture results really were. More broadly the question of rule of law gets tossed about and the Beacon on the Hill wavers yet again.