The favorite meme of Cheney & Company is that somehow September 11, 2001 changed everything.  Never before had the United States had to confront a threat from a non-state group that threatened the homeland.  This 'fact' therefore justifies abandoning our principles because we have to confront this threat from a 'war footing' rather than a 'police footing'; i.e. we must be willing to use all options.  However, that basic assumption is simply not true; the United States and the World have repeatedly faced small organized groups who inflicted terror with the intention of subverting or destroying the existing way of life.  Our principles are, in fact, that which have enabled us to defeat them. 
For example the Anarchists of the late Ninetieth and early Twentieth century. They succeeded in assassinating president William McKinley, bombing a Chicago market, and perpetrating numerous acts of violence.  And that was just in the US.  Internationally they were well organized and extremely prolific.  In researching this post I came across this eloquently written Economist article that highlights the parallels between the Anarchists of the turn of the Century and the Jihadists of today.

BOMBS, beards and backpacks: these are the distinguishing marks, at least in the popular imagination, of the terror-mongers who either incite or carry out the explosions that periodically rock the cities of the western world. A century or so ago it was not so different: bombs, beards and fizzing fuses. The worries generated by the two waves of terror, the responses to them and some of their other characteristics are also similar. The spasm of anarchist violence that was at its most convulsive in the 1880s and 1890s was felt, if indirectly, in every continent. It claimed hundreds of lives, including those of several heads of government, aroused widespread fear and prompted quantities of new laws and restrictions. But it passed.

The Anarchists likely even succeeded in an earlier version of September 11's attacks on the World Trade Center by attacking the 1920 symbol of American economic might: Wall Street, killing 38 people.  The list of small organized terrorist groups that have attacked the United States is quite long, from the Post Civil War KKK to Sarah Palin's favorite boggieman Bill Ayers and the Weatherman Underground.  

The idea that we must abondon our principles in the face of one particularly lucky group of Saudi rich kids, after they have held strong for two centuries is both ridiculous and inherently illogical.  Principles are not principles if we are able to simply dismiss them as convenient (It's what the word 'principle' means).  It is truly disturbing that traditional moralist conservative pundits can state these arguments with a straight face without recognizing that inherent contradiction.  Regardless of the logical incompatibility, it is vital to recognize that it is our principles that have given us the ideological ammunition that defeated each disaffected group in the past.
The strategy is to win the battle for ideas among the populace.  It is time-proven and effective. Torture, or whatever Orwellian euphemism you chose to rename it, is self defeating because you immediately lose the battle of ideas.  
Does anyone really think that Dave Kaczynski would have turned in his brother, the Unabomber, if he was going to be tortured? Of course not, and people would still be wary of opening their mail today.  Families in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the rest of the world are no different.  They will not provide the cooperation we need to prevent another Madrid or 7/7 if they think we will torture.  They are more likely to help their friends and family.     And of course who could forget the classic in international conspiracies: There is a Spector haunting Europe.... That small international organization has inspired terrorism from the Bolshevik Revolution to today's FARC and Shinning Path.  However even after the Soviet Union gave the international conspiracy massive state backing and succeeded in taking over half the world it was our human right principles that ultimately defeated them. It was not Star Wars that defeated the Soviet Union - or Reagan breaking the bank to  'deficit doesn't matter' military spending that the republicans like to deify.  No.  It was Mikal Gorbachev, who in the face of widespread democratic human rights protests in Eastern Europe, chose to not ruthlessly crush them.  That inaction allowed the wave to swallow the system whole, and new democracies enshrining human rights arose in its wake. 
Ideals are what win hearts and therefore minds; that is the story of America.  It is our character that is the source of our true strength and respect in the world.  Sure, we have a checkered past, but our ideals are still envied and respected throughout the world.  That is the reason why our election of Obama effectively worked as a reset button.  We returned to our ideals, and most of the world, despite everything we have done, is willing to give us another chance.  
Principles matter. 

Post script- Terrorism expert Richard Clarke lays out a proper international strategy in his book  Defeating the Jihadists: a blueprint for action.