Why is the burden on the public/DOJ to be forgiving?

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The White House, CIA, OLC and military all knew that torture was a violation of international and US law. They also knew or had the expertise available to inform them of the unreliability of torture as an interrogation method. It was no secret that the FBI had more skilled counterterrorism investigators who were able to conduct interrogations in a legal manner. Yet we are told that the White House found it appropriate to go with a reverse engineered SERE torture program run by the CIA.

How much longer will we pretend the torture program--while ineffective, criminal and disgraceful--was a patriotic counterterrorism program?