Barack Obama’s decisions on the newly released “torture memos” strike a reasonable balance on a difficult subject. In disturbing detail, the documents lay out legal opinions developed by the Bush administration upholding the permissibility of harsh interrogation techniques. Methods ranged from stress positions, such as forcing a prisoner to sit for long periods with legs straight out and arms raised, to extended sleep deprivation and waterboarding, which many regard as torture plain and simple.

Mr Obama rightly suspended these legal findings on taking office. He confined the Central Intelligence Agency and other departments to the milder techniques laid down in the Army Field Manual. The question this week was not what policy on interrogations should be, but how to deal with what it used to be – how much to disclose and what action to take against the officials and interrogators concerned.