Poll on Torture.

The results of this recent AP-Ipsos poll come to me a bit as surprise:

In the United States, 61% of those surveyed agreed that torture is justified at least on rare occasions. Almost nine in 10 in South Korea and slightly more than half in France and Britain shared that view. (LATimes)
In Canada, Mexico and Germany people are divided on whether torture is ever justified. Most people opposed torture under any circumstances in Spain and Italy. (The Guardian)

My take is that by "rare occasion" most people think of cases à la "24" - would you torture a man to save New-York, London or Paris? For some reason, I tend to think that reality is probably quite different. In any case, I still wonder what explains the differences between Italy and Spain on the one hand, and France and Britain on the other hand. The fact that France used torture during its colonial wars may have something to do with it, who knows?

Now this, however, won't help Ms Rice much since:

two-thirds of the people living in Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Spain said they would oppose allowing U.S. officials to secretly interrogate terror suspects in their countries. Almost that many in Britain, France, Germany and Italy said they felt the same way.