Disregarding the fact that finding a "ticking bomb" has nothing to do with most US torture, let's assume that some folks have been tortured to find some immediate danger. Most people would agree that's justified. There is a cost, though.

The information gained in or derived from that process may not be used in any trial. Nowhere civilized, anyway. It's barbaric. You can either torture or try, not both.

"'Fair, Open, Just, Honest'. A chat with the adviser to the Gitmo military commissions."

"But as far as I understand, only one of the five detainees who is going to be arraigned Thursday has had a chance to see his attorney."

"Dan, that will always be the case, won't it? It will always be the case. Because the prosecutor in every trial, the trial down the street, the trial in the military, the trial in this process—the prosecutor is the guy who's been studying the evidence, organizing it, collating it, gathering it, putting trial briefs together, putting charges together, swearing charges. There is no defense counsel. The accused doesn't even know he's got a case. And when that's done, the accused is charged, just like in our case. And when the charges are sworn, the accused gets a counsel. So the defense is always going to come later to the game than the prosecution does."

Bullshit. Blatant bullshit. When a person is confined anywhere in the civilized world for more than a limited time they get hearings before a judge and an attorney.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968)

Arf