Sen. Durbin elicits from Judge Gonzales: “No torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under any circumstances.” This could be problematic. As we’ve noted before, there is an important difference between what the term “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” means under U.S. law versus how it is interpreted by other nations, the UN and (for example) the ICRC. There is a world of difference between what most Americans think of as “degrading” and, say, what the NYTimes thinks — particularly in the context of captured terrorists who are the repositories of intelligence that, if wrested, may save thousands of American lives.