Look, if the guy was tortured and he's not a terrorist, I think that is awful. Like I said about ten times already, the Canadian government should compensate the poor guy.
Now if you want to ask whether I support the torture of a known terrorist, the is answer is "probably," if those on the ground believe it will help save American lives.
I didn't ask about that. This guy was a programmer and family man. Cases like his are in the 10s when our terrorist tortures are in the hundreds.
Problem is, once Bush gets his torture bill, we'll be torturing more people. instead of having 10 mistakes per 100, we'll now have 100 mistakes for 1000.
Then, we'll be torturing 10,000 men and hey, maybe 1,000 of them are completely innocent. maybe less, maybe more. But a thousand men just spent a year getting waterboarded, having car batteries attached to their genitals, or perhaps having small slits made in their genitals every monday for 52 weeks.
Stats don't lie. A percentage will always be wrongly accused. The more men you allow to be tortured, the more men will be wrongly tortured. This is why you cannot allow one.
besides, truth serum and polygraphs work. morphine makes people tell the truth. Ask any terrorist if he'd prefer an hour in a freezer, or a shot of morphine