I went on to quote Abu Zubaydah, the captured al-Qaeda terrorist who, according to the CIA memos released by the Obama administration, told his interrogators: "Brothers who are captured and interrogated are permitted by Allah to provide information when they believe they have reached the limit of their ability to withhold it in the face of psychological and physical hardships."

This struck me as an important and potentially life-saving insight into the thinking of militant Islamists. "Imagine an al-Qaeda member who would like to give his interrogators information, who does not want to continue fighting, who would prefer not to see more innocent people slaughtered," I wrote. "He would need his interrogators to press him hard so he can feel that he has met his religious obligations - only then could he cooperate. "

Schmitt insisted that what I had written was clearly "referring to interrogation techniques that are widely agreed to be torture" and therefore, the magazine's "characterization of your comments is entirely appropriate."

What's more, he said it was obvious that I was suggesting "there is a particular need to use extreme measures on Muslims/Islamists because of the nature of their religious beliefs, that is, for being Muslims."

I asked him if he genuinely failed to understand the difference between Muslims and Islamists, between -- for example -- a Kurdish businessman and al-Qaeda member with knowledge of plots targeting civilians, or between an Indonesian farmer and a leader of Hezbollah or Hamas. I know there are people on the far right who do not make such distinctions (I sometimes receive angry letters from them) but for the American Prospect's executive editor to hold this view struck me as astounding.

The reality, of course, is that Schmitt is not so ignorant. He simply endorses slander against people like me, people who have the temerity to dissent from the orthodoxy he advocates.

In this case, however, his magazine went beyond misrepresentation to encouraging violence - because anyone who actually does advocate torturing "Muslims because they're Muslim" should be prepared for a dose of his own medicine.

This is more than an assault on me. It's more than an assault on civil debate. It is an attempt to crush debate; to de-legitimize unwelcome arguments and to demonize those who make them. This is a way to say: Shut up or someone will shut you up.

This is the kind of irresponsible and thuggish use of media power that Krugman and Rich claim to decry. We have seen it many times before in many places around the world. But who would ever have expected to see it in The New York Times and The American Prospect, that "authoritative magazine of liberal ideas"?