Does Torture Work? The C.I.A.’s Claims and What the Committee Found

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/09/politics/top-takeaways-cia-torture-report/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

In other words, you're wrong.

Also...

Obama appointed Director John Brennan disagrees with the report stating ETI "saved lives".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...a5f520-7fc6-11e4-81fd-8c4814dfa9d7_story.html

Is Obama "shaming" the United States by allowing this guy to continue in his job?

 

To answer the question posed by the thread, torture sometimes works. That said, probably not enough times to justify it's use. Of course we could have a whole separate debate about what exactly constitutes "torture", but that's really unnecessary. What I think most people should know though is that human intelligence is by far the least reliable form of intelligence and it can get even less reliable when torture is used. Just look at the human intelligence available in the Furguson case, eyewitnesses said all kinds of stupid things that were deemed impossible to have happened by the hard evidence and those weren't even enemies trying to keep secrets. You simply can't trust human intelligence a lot of the time.

 

You are a sick person. You're no better than our "enemies".

 

John McCain disagrees

 

Besides the fact that there are a lot of issues conflated with the torture---rule of law broken, evasion from public accountability, why are you turned on by the idea of torture?

http://theweek.com/article/index/27...ith-this-undeniable-truth-torture-doesnt-work

 

newsflash: people can be made to comply to avoid sufficient negative consequences

 

Commodore, how do you reconcile the fact you're against excessive government force when it comes to taxation, but not when it comes to shoving objects up a human anus

 

what damage does it do? It wasn't a secret before....so what damage is done? You think ISIS is seeing an increase in recruits because of this report? LOL...Yeah i'm sure this is required reading material at ISIS recruiting events

 

btw---

Spoiler

 

yes and providing false info is usually the route they take.

 

newsflash: torture is not effective at gathering information

 

It's not as effective as other forms of intelligence gathering, but that doesn't mean it's not effective at all. Plenty of good intel has come from "advanced interrogation".....plenty of bad intel as well.

 

newsflash: intel can be verified

 

I said it works, not that I necessarily endorse it.

Whether I am for it depends on the act and who it is being used on. KSM gave up his right not to be waterboarded when he plotted the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans and cut off Daniel Pearl's head.

 

So you advocate for torture as a form of punishment and retribution for bad acts.

That's entirely different from what's being discussed in this thread, and frankly not likely to be even remotely close to allowable under the 8th Amendment.

 

Foreigners do not have constitutional rights if they are not in the US or a US territory.

 

No, I'm ok with specific interrogation techniques being used on individuals that violate conventions of warfare, for the purpose of gathering intelligence to prevent future deaths of innocents.

 

What if it's a U.S. citizen and the citizen has alleged information on future attacks. Would you uses torture then?

 

There is no excuse for this kind of stuff. It will just produce more hate.

There was a case in Germany a few years ago where the young son of a banker was kidnapped by a guy. Police apprehended the guy and believed the kid was still alive, but might die if not found quickly. The police officer allegedly threatened the guy with torture to make him tell the police the location of the child, although in a subtle and unclear manner.

Turned out later that the kidnapper had already murdered the kid. The kidnapper had the nerve to sue later for alleged trauma because of the alleged torture, but lost the case. But the police officer was convicted and sentenced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Gäfgen

http://www.dw.de/police-chief-fined-in-torture-case/a-1433653

I must admit that in this case, I would side with the police officer - there was no actual torture and he was sincerely trying to save the child, of which only the kidnapper could know the location.

But the torture allegations in the USA are on a completely different level.

 

If you have to waste the resources and money to comb through all the stories the torture victim told, then it isn't an effective strategy.

Like I've said, even if it was effective, it's against the law, and immoral, and therefore should never be used. But add to that the fact that it just isn't effective and there's no reason at all to use it.