Marc Thiessen: terrorists want to be tortured

On CSPAN radio, Marc Thiessen (former Bush Administration official and author of a new book on the Administration's "war on terror," says that the CIA did terrorists a favor by torturing them. Really, I'm serious. Listen to him here. Find the clip at minute 28:58 of the transcript. His argument is basically that the terrorists want to give us information, but their oath to al Qaeda forbids this. But if they are tortured (sorry, enhancedly-interrogated) up to their limit to resist, they are relieved of their oath and are free to open up.

This is truly astonishing and sickening. More broadly, it is dismaying to me that because of the can of worms the Bush Administration opened up, every time a terrorist is captured we now have to have a debate over whether we should torture him. Why don't we torture the underwear bomber? Let's torture the Taliban commanders captured in Pakistan! And every time, opponents of torture have to explain that we live in a civilized society where that is or should be anathema. Thanks, Dick Cheney.