We’ve all heard about the chilling effect this may have on reasonable interrogation techniques and the unfair price some Americans might have to pay for using them after this ban goes into effect.

But this has been explained away as a small price to pay for improving our image abroad. But who says it will? We know that al Qaeda instructs its operatives to claim they were tortured even when they weren’t. They certainly won’t stop making those claims now. Indeed, their incentive to “prove” American deceit and hypocrisy is much greater now. Moreover, I sincerely doubt that the “international community,” human rights groups and the foreign and domestic press won’t be eager to credit such claims at the first opportunity. Recall how merely transporting al Qaeda to Gitmo in hoods prompted the British tabloids to scream “Torture!” (which immediately put the allegation into the American media bloodstream)? Well, why do we think they won’t do that again over some minor or fabricated infraction of these new, incredibly strict, rules?

And if some American interrogator does cross the new line and goes for a belly slap and some face-smacks in order to get information you can be sure the EU will call it “torture” and our hypocrisy will be proved once again. After all, some EU-crat just this week claimed holding an al-Qaeda operative incommunicado amounts to “torture.”

In short, not only do I think we’re not buying much good PR but we are setting ourselves up for a huge PR disaster down the road.