The Mahablog: Naughty Bits

Josh White writes in today's Washington Post that Abu Ghraib tactics were first used at Guantanamo:

Interrogators at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, forced a stubborn detainee to wear women's underwear on his head, confronted him with snarling military working dogs and attached a leash to his chains, according to a newly released military investigation that shows the tactics were employed there months before military police used them on detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The techniques, approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for use in interrogating Mohamed Qahtani -- the alleged "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- were used at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002 as part of a special interrogation plan aimed at breaking down the silent detainee.

A month ago, White and Jim VandenHei reported that the Defense Department said it had obtained valuable information from Qahtani about Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the 9/11 attacks. Setting aside whether forcing someone to wear underpants on his head is torture, one could argue that if information obtained by unsavory methods helps prevent terrorist attacks, what's the deal? And that's a compelling argument. I'm sure many rightie bloggers today will make that argument.