Earlier this week, Kiefer Sutherland, star of the television series 24, attempted to impose some sanity in an interview with the London Guardian. The short version: Yeah, 24 is a ripping good yarn, but if you think we've proven the efficacy or necessity of torture in counterterrorist policy, you're crazy; there's a distinction between fiction and the real world.
"We don't have to choose between our safety and our ideals," Panetta said. If there ever is a ticking time bomb -- and the scenario pretty much doesn't exist in the real world, since it presumes too much and therefore isn't a genuine case -- Panetta said he'd urge "everything possible within the law to get that information ... If you talk to [FBI Director] Bob Mueller, talk to [Sen.] John McCain, talk to Gen. [David] Petraeus, they believe that information can be obtained without resulting to extraordinary measures."
clipped from: www.huffingtonpost.com