Incentives

by digby

I've long worried about the gradual open acceptance of torture and have written a lot about the expanding police apparatus and what that means to our civil liberties. ("If you build it, they will use it.")

In a post questioning the usefulness of creating yest another alternate legal system to deal with the Guantanamo prisoners, Hilzoy puts her finger exactly on why it is a very dangerous idea, and cites what I consider to be a chilling example of how it's likely to be abused:

One of the ways in which we protect ourselves from torture is by making it clear that evidence gained through torture is inadmissible in court. Creating an alternative legal system in which such evidence was admissible would create horrible incentives for law enforcement. This is particularly true since many terrorism statutes are broadly written. Consider this case:

Read on...

This is an interesting post about civil liberties, torture and terrorism. Obama still has to take a stand on torture. Tom