And for what?

I haven't read all four torture memos yet, but I have printed out and I'm definitely planning on slogging through them. Watch this spot for more on those. Suffice it to say, though, that the memos confirm the worst of the allegations in the ICRC report we covered here recently.

Still, even without seeing the memos, the facts are bad enough.

We're constantly hearing from apologists for torture that we had to do it, and that torturing people prevented all kinds of additional, and more lethal, terrorist attacks. The truth, however, is very different.

This story from today's Times shows why. WASHINGTON — The first use of waterboarding and other rough treatment against a prisoner from Al Qaeda was ordered by senior Central Intelligence Agency officials despite the belief of interrogators that the prisoner had already told them all he knew, according to former intelligence officials and a footnote in a newly released legal memorandum.

That's right. Apparently if you work for the CIA, you get to slam a defensive guy against a concrete wall, subject him to freezing temperatures, or keep him awake for eleven days in a row just for the hell of it.

Hmmm. Do you think it's too late to change careers?