We'll punish you later...

This is from Strategy Page:

It's one thing to go after politicians and officials for crimes like theft, lying and revealing classified information. But in this case, the investigations and prosecutions are over transgressions that are mainly a matter of faith, not fact. Take, for example, torture. During the last eight years, it became the conventional wisdom among Democrats that torture didn't work. This was absurd, as a cursory glance at the history of World War II, and every war before or since, would reveal. Pundits pointed out that tortured people will tell you anything. Again, this displayed an amazing ignorance of intelligence tradecraft. While some people will tell you anything when tortured, a lot of people will also provide useful information that can be double checked. It's not like the movies, where everything depends on the painful pronouncements of one tortured individual. The reality was that using "vigorous interrogation" brought forth much useful information, always has, and always will. Intelligence is all about putting together lots of small pieces. That's why U.S. operatives are taught how to resist torture. Yes, there are individuals who can outsmart, or outlast, torture. But they are always a minority. It's a war of numbers, and something that doesn't make for exciting soundbites.

What worries more thoughtful politicians is that, if you can be prosecuted for things that opposition politicians believed, mostly as a matter of faith, why get involved at all? This is all part of an ideological battle that has been going on over espionage and intelligence work since World War II. Lots of myths were turned into facts, and ideology became more important than the truth.
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It's one thing to go after politicians and officials for crimes like theft, lying and revealing classified information. But in this case, the investigations and prosecutions are over transgressions that are mainly a matter of faith, not fact. Take, for example, torture. During the last eight years, it became the conventional wisdom among Democrats that torture didn't work. This was absurd, as a cursory glance at the history of World War II, and every war before or since, would reveal. Pundits pointed out that tortured people will tell you anything. Again, this displayed an amazing ignorance of intelligence tradecraft. While some people will tell you anything when tortured, a lot of people will also provide useful information that can be double checked. It's not like the movies, where everything depends on the painful pronouncements of one tortured individual. The reality was that using "vigorous interrogation" brought forth much useful information, always has, and always will. Intelligence is all about putting together lots of small pieces. That's why U.S. operatives are taught how to resist torture. Yes, there are individuals who can outsmart, or outlast, torture. But they are always a minority. It's a war of numbers, and something that doesn't make for exciting soundbites.

What worries more thoughtful politicians is that, if you can be prosecuted for things that opposition politicians believed, mostly as a matter of faith, why get involved at all? This is all part of an ideological battle that has been going on over espionage and intelligence work since World War II. Lots of myths were turned into facts, and ideology became more important than the truth.