Before 9/11, who would have imagined that the vice president of the United States would publicly endorse the use of waterboarding in interrogating suspects as a "no-brainer"? Or that the administration would exploit the political opportunity of a tight election to ram immunity for government torturers through Congress? Who would have imagined that America would be condemned around the world for "disappearing" suspects, sweeping them off into secret prisons for brutal interrogations? That only five years after 9/11 the sympathy expressed around the world for America's tragic losses would have frayed? Or that Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib would become, for much of the world, more potent symbols of America than the Statue of Liberty?
