The Senate Judiciary Committee would like details on what the Justice Department considers to be the legal limits on coercive interrogation techniques (i.e. where harsh-but-permissible interrogation techniques end and torture or otherwise illegal conduct begins). The Justice Department says no dice. Regardless of one’s views of the proper limits of legal interrogation, this should be troubling. As Marty Lederman comments:
there is usually very good reason for not disclosing information on exactly which tactics and methods the CIA has actually used on which detainees, and which techniques have been successful. Much of what the CIA does around the world is kept secret, at least in the short run. But I remain unconvinced that it is necessary to classify the legal limits on the CIA’s interrogation techniques — i.e., to have a secret law that the public and the Congress cannot know about.