Your problem isn't that Cohen is legally wrong, it's that, law be damned, so many people in the USA agree with him. Joe Scarborough can say that Bush and torture kept america safe and closing guantanamo (nd civilised behaviour) will make america into a target.

There are a lot of Americans who genuinely feel that this is true. Maybe not a majority, but enough who will then convince a majority that any pursuit of them will be political. And if it turns into a discussion over the politics, you've lost.

Sun Tzu counselled you to only fight battles you can win, ensure that you have done the groundwork before you ever engage so that winning is not just likely but inevitable.

So, before you do the legal thing, you have to do the hearts and minds thing of convincing america that banning torture isn't just some high faluting namby pamby liberal thing, but banning torture is wrong for hard faced practical reasons for the good of america, her soldiers and her people. That if you wouldn't want it done to you, how can you do it to others. Destroy the ticking timebomb argument.

Only when the American public can look at 24 and say torture is wrong, can hear Scarborough argue for it and revolt. Only when you've won the political battle. Only then can you actually do the legal thing.

Till then, it ain't worth the candle.

keep to the Fen Causeway