The following quote from Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen is quite possibly the most despicable, mendacious argument I’ve ever heard:

Critics claim that enhanced techniques do not produce good intelligence because people will say anything to get the techniques to stop. But the memos note that, “as Abu Zubaydah himself explained with respect to enhanced techniques, ‘brothers who are captured and interrogated are permitted by Allah to provide information when they believe they have reached the limit of their ability to withhold it in the face of psychological and physical hardship.” In other words, the terrorists are called by their faith to resist as far as they can — and once they have done so, they are free to tell everything they know. This is because of their belief that “Islam will ultimately dominate the world and that this victory is inevitable.” The job of the interrogator is to safely help the terrorist do his duty to Allah, so he then feels liberated to speak freely. This is the secret to the program’s success.

Hear that, everyone? Muslims are allowed to confess and give up information once they’re tortured to their breaking point. So, really, the poor Muslims we had in our custody wanted us to torture them so they’d finally feel free to speak their minds about all the bad stuff they did!

I don’t have the words to express how much shame and disgust I feel when I force myself to read something so sociopathically evil as that…

Update: Andrew Sullivan draws a very apt parallel to Neil Gaiman’s description of torture in hell:

“We will hurt you. And we are not sorry. But we do not do it to punish you. We do it to redeem you. Because afterward, you’ll be a better person … and because we love you. One day you’ll thank us for it.”

Update 2: A quote from Orwell comes to mind:

“Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”

Update 3: David Neiwart points to a quote from the late Joan Fitzpatrick:

The prohibition on torture is a peremptory norm of customary international law binding on all nations. The torturer is the enemy of all mankind.