Why won't any U.S. politician, official or contractor ever be prosecuted for torturing people? That big question looms in the background of the just-released CIA report: Why won't anybody be prosecuted for violating U.S. laws against torture?

The conventional wisdom had been that the Central Intelligence Agency's actions were essentially immunized from prosecution because the agency relied on opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice — the so-called torture memos.

The report championed by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California says that CIA interrogations went well beyond the techniques described to the Office of Legal Counsel and authorized as legal in its memos.