Kiefer Sutherland comes to the defence of 24 - it's not condoning torture, he says (scroll to bottom):
24 is absolutely not - categorically not - a justification for torture. Those stories that the US army is worried about the torture sequences in our show? It should be a lot more worried about its behaviour in Abu Ghraib than about our television series. That's ludicrous. I think the whole thing has been taken out of context. There was a conversation between the head of West Point [the military academy] and some human-rights activist groups - which we actually brought together. What we are interested in is the fact that it has become a debate on a very public level. That's what's fantastic about entertainment: it brings certain subjects into people's conversations.I've expressed my view on this issue here and here. Despite Sutherland's defence, the makers of the programme have announced that, from now on, they'll be 'toning down the torture'.