From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

The torture memos, truth and consequences.

Hello again, I'm Orin Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

The release of

Justice Department memos about harsh interrogations has raised a host of troubling questions. Did the

memos justify war crimes? Should the lawyers who wrote them be prosecuted? Were the interrogation

methods being used before the memos were written? Did the methods, including waterboarding,

produce information that made Americans safer?

Would other methods have been more reliable? If President Obama says some people should be

prosecuted while others are spared, is he politicizing the issue? Is he violating the law?

We'll hear some conflicting answers today on reporter's notebook later on a massive turnout for South

Africa's latest election. First,

here's the news. Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the

Public Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John

D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation. Hello again, Mormon Alney, back with To the Point.

Pressure is building to prosecute former Justice Department lawyers for supporting harsh

interrogation techniques. We'll look at that and other issues posed by the release of

controversial legal memos. On reporter's notebook, despite concerns that South Africa is on the decline,

the ruling party has won again. We heard about the

prospects for change. First is news update. Iraqi forces claim they've arrested a top al-Qaeda leader.

At the same time, suicide bombers killed more than 70 people in and around Baghdad. Liz

...