Or, the state is adept at making the cases it can actually make, and less adept at making systemic cases whose prosecution would cost tens of millions of dollars and seize up operations at intelligence services that actually do need to function, for instance to curb proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Reasonable people can OBVIOUSLY disagree on this point, but I do not perceive Barack Obama as someone who is sanguine about torture.

Is that perception based on his public speech or on his actions?

Personally, if i were sanguine about torture I would have already closed Guantanamo.