This was a key part of the Ermächtigungsgesetze (Enabling Acts) granting the German government under the NSDAP and Adolf Hitler the power to arrest and indefinitely detain anyone. These acts were passed through the Reichstag after opposition parties had been neutralised (to put it politely) or gleichgeschaltet.

There is a fine book by Karlheinz Deschner, unfortunately not available in English, on how the Vatican helped make this possible by ordering the dissolution of the Zentrum (the German Catholic party). It would go too far in this note but, although the present pope claims his membership in the Hitler Youth did not constitute support for the NSDAP, the fact is that his career in the Roman Catholic Church did. I fear that we have not seen the end of Church participation and promotion of brutality and injustice in our century. The strongest advocates of the authoritarian modus in the US are historically and philosophically aligned with the traditions of German and Roman Catholic fascism. I cannot help but think that the treatment meted out in Guantanamo is a historical extension of the Reconquista and the Counter-Reformation rolled into one. Most unappetising, I have to say.

The US is basically ruled by a one-party system and we have all seen how easy it has been to get the congressional leadership to whip the necessary votes for almost any police measure the Executive requests. Rehnquist basically sealed the coffin on judicial independence before he relieved the world of his atrocious presence.

One has to ask where is that sense of law and right that protected the likes of Pinochet?

But really you should have a look at Henry Lea’s book, Superstition and Force. It is available second hand. Of course one can learn a lot about enhanced interrogations by consulting Lea’s history of the Inquisition, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Charles_Lea