Yet the debate from the Americans is entirely introspective and utterly fails to take into account that this is being watched across the world. The BBC got bored and went elsewhere, so I watched it to the end on al-Jazeera, to see what kind of reception it might get the other side of the fence.
The people that were tortured are not Americans and so America affected other countries, regardless of the justification or not. These acts may have let the perpetrators of 9/11 off the hook: happy? 'd think not, so why my sainted mother's aunt did they do it?
The failure of the Republicans to have an input may impact internally as a "not in my name" argument, but has absolutely no effect internationally, not least because most of this seems to have occurred under them. The Report is now cast in stone, and the demands in the UN are unlikely to go away: once such a demand is formalised, it cannot be disregarded but must be processed. The response to that may affect how the UN treats the US henceforth: if it is ignored, it could be termed a pariah State. The charges here are on the same scale as Milosevic and company, and they thought they weren't signatories to the appropriate Conventions either. There's such a thing as learning the hard way.