Jeff Stein at CQ Politics asks a very good question of former Vice Pres. Dick Cheney.
Stein: What stopped terrorists from attacking for the past five years?
The CIA is said to have relinquished water boarding, roughing up, sleep deprivation and other tough interrogation techniques in 2004, according to most reports.
But between Sept. 11, 2001 and [...]

“And remember, one of al Qaeda’s goals — it’s not just to attack the United States. It’s to prove that we’re hypocrites, that we don’t live up to American principles. So when we use torture and abuse, we’re playing into one of their stated goals.”

He did it again. Bush tried to scare the Senate into confirming the open-minded (when it comes to torture, anyway) Michael Mukasey to replace former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Follow me closely here — Mukasey needs to know whether we waterboard because if we do it, it’s automatically not torture.
Bush later linked the debate [...]

Immoral Relativism: George Bush’s nomination of Michael Mukasey for U.S. attorney general — once thought to be smooth sailing — is experiencing a bit of turbulence. The problem is, Mukasey can’t bring himself to say whether or not waterboarding is torture:
“I don’t know what’s involved in the techniques. If waterboarding is torture, torture is not [...]