The trial of KSM thread

[Clutch Munny]

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Originally Posted by ChuckF

I don't think he's saying that KSM shouldn't be tried because the trial would create bad law. I think he's saying that he was detained for so long and tortured will, by force of the appellate process, further legitimize torture-as-law-enforcement because the government simply cannot lose this trial.

This problem with institutionalized torture kinda sorta reminds me (FWIW -- probably nothing) of what I've thought about capital punishment: that the moral seriousness of screwing it up, given that you've argued that it was somehow necessary, strangely doesn't have the institutional effect of creating a self-policing, extra-careful set of practices that one might idealistically imagine. Quite the opposite: it puts in place an incentive for willful blindness, ass-covering and self-justification at all costs that can create an even more cavalier or sloppier than normal set of practices.