They knew it was wrong...

U.S. Lawyers Agreed on Legality of Brutal Tactic

"C.I.A. officials had been nervous about the legality of their proposed methods from the start in 2002. They had asked Michael Chertoff, then head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, to grant interrogators immunity in advance from prosecution for torture. Mr. Chertoff refused, but neither did he warn the agency against the methods it was proposing."

Why would you ask for immunity in advance if you didn't know it was wrong? It's clear that people knew ahead of time this was illegal. This is abhorrent behavior by members of our government.