This isn't surprising. These prisoners should be dealt with as enemy soldiers (and that is what "enemy combatants" are) and as such their treatment must stay within the confines of the Geneva Convention, or they must be treated as extradited accused criminals, in which case they are protected by the Constitution because they are accused criminals rather than convicted criminals. Torture, moreover, is unpardonable. Of course, we probably don't have long to wait until someone extols torture as a patriotic duty and declares that anyone who opposes it supports Osama bin Laden. We're waiting, barney.

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)