I was listening to some of the issue today on the radio, and enjoyed the comment "people resort to torture because it's easier to hit them than to outsmart them."

In the literary vein, some of John Le Carre's earlier works contain some superb examples of nonviolent interrogation, particularly the series including Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People (and dramatized with Sir Alec Guinness in the 1980's).

As for ex Vice President Cheney, I enjoy his appearance on the talkies, because (a)he has every right to argue the efficacy of the methods being used by his version of government and (b) I think he is an excellent argument for the Democratic Party and the current administration smells better all the time by comparison to the previous, and Cheney sharpens this perception. Let him and Rush Limbaugh fight it out in the mud, one pig with another, and let us piously remember the likes of William F Buckley and Everett Dirksen.