It Could Happen Here
By Ben Cohen
Andrew Sullivan elegantly crystallizes why the torture memos are so important:
If you want to know how democracies die, read these memos. Read how
gifted professionals in the CIA were able to convince experienced
doctors that what they were doing was ethical and legal. Read how
American psychologists were able to find justifications for the
imposition of psychological torture, and were able to analyze its
effects without ever stopping and asking: what on earth are we doing?