The Torture Tapes

The Washington Monthly (12.08.07):

"So here's what the tapes would have shown: not just that we had brutally tortured an al-Qaeda operative, but that we had brutally tortured an al-Qaeda operative who was

(a) unimportant and low-ranking,
(b) mentally unstable,
(c) had no useful information, and
(d) eventually spewed out an endless series of worthless, fantastical 'confessions' under duress.

This was all prompted by the president of the United States, implemented by the director of the CIA, and the end result was thousands of wasted man hours by intelligence and and law enforcement personnel."

What the Tapes Would Have Shown

"And just think: there's an entire political party in this country that still thinks this is OK."