Too Many Reports From Too Many Sources

The issue of prisoner abuse, to me, is not the biggest one facing the United States today. It is not even one of largest problems with the misnamed war on terror. It is, however, a fuck up on the part of this administration to allow whatever degree of prisoner abuse it has allowed. I don't see how when the reports of this first surfaced, the administration didn't go into fix-the-problem mode. Did they think Americans would stand for abusing detainees? I hardly know any American who thinks we ought to torture or even treat prisoners cruelly as a matter of course.

At the same time, most Americans would agree that if there were a huge imminent threat, torture would be permissible. There does not, however, seem to be a single known case where this step has proven useful, save an episode of 24.

Drezner points to a conservative judge who wrote a series of memos on the issue within the administration.