DiFi argues that waterboarding and other coercive techniques are “a stain on our values and our history.” Morell writes: “I believe that waterboarding was one of the two most effective of all the harsh techniques (the other being sleep deprivation). That complicates things. Doesn’t it?” If waterboarding stains American values, then surely drones do, as well; yet Feinstein supports Obama’s use of drones. In DiFi’s world, it’s good policy to blow suspected terrorists to bits, just as long as you don’t get them wet first. It’s politically expedient to use drones to save U.S. military lives but not OK to waterboard to save civilian lives.

I can’t help but roll my eyes when I hear politicians saying they need to wage a full-bore investigation because a probe will, as Feinstein proclaimed, “prevent this from ever happening again.”

But without a congressional investigation, the CIA stopped waterboarding in March 2003, well before Obama banned all 10 harsh interrogation techniques in his first week in office. Agents employed waterboarding on three detainees over a period of eight months, and many in the agency opposed the practice from the start. The expense and stress of legal investigations, even into practices approved by the Department of Justice, discouraged any believers in the methods.