Tortured detainees can't be prosecuted

So the former general counsel of the U.S. Army tells Bob Woodward:

“We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani,” said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. “His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case” for prosecution.

The U.S. can’t summarily execute terror suspects in custody, and it might have good reasons not to want to repatriate them, either. Whatever you think of the choices the last president made that put us into the situation, stories like this eventually compel future presidents to set detainees free. (And would have whether the next guy was John McCain or Barack Obama.) Liberal democracies governed by rule of law have a hard time locking people up indefinitely without trial, and for good reason. So, what if Qahtani actually is a danger to the United States? What then? Torturing him has basically given him a pass.

(Hat tip: DI)