ability to understand moral values.
As Cheney sees the world, the ends justify he means. In high school, I learned that attitude is the mark of a totalitarian society. That was the view of Hitler. That was the view of Stalin. Both Hitler and Stalin imprisoned people for their ideas and thereby silenced speech and dissent.
I understand that some of the alleged terrorists who were tortured were evil people. I also understand from having read Jane Mayer's book, The Dark Side that at least one of them was picked up by mistake. It's all too easy to make mistakes when torturing suspects. That is one of many reasons we cannot allow torture.
Torture makes the tortured victim less human, but it also makes the torturer less human. How unAmerican. It is especially disgusting because the purpose of the torture was to force the suspects to talk. The right to remain silent is one of our most fundamental rights. Our aversion to torture and our belief in the right to remain silent are in part based on our Puritan heritage and the memory of the terrible persecution of Puritans in England. (I believe that Puritans engaged in practices that we today might consider torture, but the aversion to torture and to forcing suspects to speak through torture grew out of the experiences of the Puritans and others in the Star Chambers.)
star chamber proceedings n. any judicial or quasi-judicial action, trial, or hearing which so grossly violates standards of "due process" that a party appearing in the proceedings (hearing or trial) is denied a fair hearing. The term comes from a large room with a ceiling decorated with stars in which secret hearings of the privy council and judges met to determine punishment for disobedience of the proclamations of King Henry VIII of Great Britain (1509-1547). The high-handed, unfair, predetermined judgments, which sent the accused to The Tower of London or to the chopping block, made "star chamber" synonymous with unfairness and illegality from the bench. In modern American history the best example of star chamber proceedings was the conduct of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (1938-1975) which used its subpena power to intimidate citizens by asking them unconstitutional questions about their political beliefs and associations, and then charging them with contempt of Congress for refusing to answer. Another example was the conduct of criminal proceedings against black defendants in some southern states from 1876 until the late 1960s. (See: kangaroo court)
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/star+chamber+proceedingsEssentially, the practice of torture obviates the procedure of a trial and inflicts punishment without any regard for human rights. It is an abomination.
Interesting historical note about the Star Chamber. At the Constitutional Convention, Gerry objected to the Constitution on the ground that it would permit the establishment of a Star Chamber which he defined as a court without a jury to try civil cases. That is how wary our Founding Fathers were of the Star Chamber, of any procedure that deprived people of due process.
http://books.google.com/books?id=9GUFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA553&lpg=PA553&dq=James+Madison+Star+chamber&source=bl&ots=0g43OofIZF&sig=dAGfcU_o71hemIfARH9V5xe2B0w&hl=en&ei=asLsSeQqhIq0A-O-1eYB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9See page 47