The Financial Times gets to the heart of the problem with the trials of six Guantánamo Bay prisoners linked to the September 11 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

There is no doubt that “high value” detainees such as Khaled Sheikh Mohammed – who brags he was the mastermind behind 9/11 and beheaded Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter – must face justice. But the case against him and some of his associates has been compromised by the circumvention of legal process and the use of torture techniques such as waterboarding or simulated drowning.

Tony Scalia continues to embarrass himself and paint an ugly portrait of American barbarism.

"I suppose it's the same thing about so-called torture. Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to determine where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited in the constitution?" he asked.

"It would be absurd to say you couldn't do that. And once you acknowledge that, we're into a different game.

"How close does the threat have to be? And how severe can the infliction of pain be?"

Ah, the old ticking time bomb scenario that serves as the foundation of mediocre TV shows and conservative jurisprudence.

Keith Olbermann (not a Supreme Court Justice) pokes a giant hole (at 2:37) in the logic of Tony Scalia (is a Supreme Court Justice).