There are obvious ethical limitations and dangers in any sort of trial. But analyzing data? My view on this is: let it all be known. Let's use the dark chapter in US history to examine exactly why people torture, what happens when they do and what the results look like in comparison with interrogation.
(Hat tip: Drezner.)
A reader asks a good question:
Tell us, Mr. Ledeen, what was that something that Reagan gave Iran in 1979/80?
The Atlantic made a slideshow of the photos used in our cover contest, including six new window views from the book. Click here to check them out.
Using a classic technique with a powerful twist at the end:
Conor Friedersdorf dreams:
On the totally surreal front, my aspiration is to live in a country where the president actually explains that no-one can or ever will win an imperial war in Afghanistan, that we cannot possibly leave Iraq in the next eight years without a bloodbath, that Iran cannot be prevented from getting a nuclear bomb in the foreseeable future, that an energy policy without nuclear power cannot do anything to stop global warming, and that Israel has lots of nukes, and will never, ever withdraw from the West Bank.
But that's me, crazy old me. I prefer to start from reality and work forward. Not America. Here, fantasy is still alive and well … and running the country.
"I have learned many lessons in the ten years since I first raised my right hand at the United States Military Academy at West Point and committed to fighting for my country. The lessons of courage, integrity, honesty and selfless service are some of the most important.
At West Point, I recited the Cadet Prayer every Sunday. It taught us to “choose the harder right over the easier wrong” and to “never be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.” The Cadet Honor Code demanded truthfulness and honesty. It imposed a zero-tolerance policy against deception, or hiding behind comfort.
Following the Honor Code never bowed to comfortable timing or popularity. Honor and integrity are 24-hour values. That is why I refuse to lie about my identity," – Lt. Dan Choi, another patriot who served his country with honor and with skills the military desperately needs, whose reward is to be stigmatized and persecuted for his integrity as a human being. Choi served in Iraq and speaks Arabic.
He was discharged by president Barack H. Obama, whose attitude toward the civil rights movement of his time appears to be "the fierce urgency of whenever."
Fact weirder than fiction.
This is very depressing news – a decision by Obama to threaten the UK with withholding intelligence if the British high court release seven pages detailing the torture of British resident Binyam Mohamed:
So Obama has now appointed a general to head up the Afghanistan occupation who reportedly assured his men who were routinely and sadistically torturing captives in Iraq that no investigator from the military, let alone the Red Cross, would be allowed in to witness the war crimes. And he has now threatened a major ally if its court releases details of another torture victim of the Bush-Cheney era.
One assumes it has something to do with Pakistan. If the Musharraf government were implicated, the wave of anti-Americanism in that country could explode even further. But this is speculation on my part. It's unclear why the details of the Zubaydah torture could be released, but not the torture of Binyam.
"This is the objective. The objective is unemployment. The objective is more food stamp benefits. The objective is more unemployment benefits. The objective is an expanding welfare state. And the objective is to take the nation’s wealth and return to it to the nation’s quote, “rightful owners.” Think reparations. Think forced reparations here if you want to understand what actually is going on," – Rush Limbaugh, leader of the GOP.
Forced reparations from the first black president. Well, I guess no one ever accused Limbaugh of keeping his racism under wraps.
The Dish 