The Washington Post has a good article by David Luban, professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and visiting professor at Stanford University Law School. The article is titled Torture, American Style.

NPR also has Luban as a guest on "The Debate Over Torture", with the other side represented by neo-conservative ideologue Charles Krauthammer, who is a member of the Project for the New American Century, and a columnist for the Weekly Standard.

Many in the US have voiced their opposition to the use of torture, and that it negatively impacts the image of the US. Most of US allies oppose torture by the US, as an IPSOS-Reid poll shows. 

Meanwhile, the White House threatened to veto any measure by the Senate to ban torture, but later resorted to seeking a deal with the Senate. At the same time, Dr. Condoleezza Rice had defended as lawful the practice of extraordinary rendition of terror suspects in foreign countries. In the meantime, the Army has introduced new classifed rules that would contradict the intent of the Senate's ban on torture by the military.

All this is ironic: I remember the days when America was a symbol of freedom, democracy and human rights. What a turn for the worst ...