Food for thought: “Intelligence sharing between Europe and the United States certainly won’t grind to a halt but European political elites are coming under increasing pressure from their angry publics to distance themselves from any U.S. practices that infringe on human rights and international law. That spells trouble for European intelligence officers who cannot say with certainty how the intelligence they share will be used by their U.S. counterparts.”
–democracyarsenal.org [emphasis mine]

Intelligence cooperation has apparently been the unspoken backbone of political goodwill between Europe and the United States, even during moments of tense policy debate. That our stance on human rights could affect that backbone is troubling as well as unforeseen.

I mention this merely to provide more context for the human rights/terrorism defense debate, which rages unabated–and apparently unprogressed–in the news. What other practical considerations ought to be included when we weigh the hefty philosophical and moral burdens of sullying our souls through torture? Such actions are, I believe, like abortion: even on those occasions when they are both permissible and better than the alternative, they are NEVER to be wished for. No one is ever either pro-abortion or pro-torture; such choices are merely, as Winston Churchill might have said, the worst options except for all the others.