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Torture Foiled No Plots

The Washington Post, by no means a bastion of liberal ideals, has a great article on the ineffectiveness (and indeed counterproductiveness) of using torture as means of obtaining intelligence. Dan Froomkin has a follow-up editorial that also makes for good reading.

The summary of both is: 1) it's impossible to predict when people have information that only torture will produce, 2) people will say anything, truthful or not, to stopped being tortured, and 3) following these "leads" is really expensive, consuming resources that could be used elsewhere. In the case of Abu Zubaida, the poster-child for the rationale of using torture, all three apply.

Everyone knows where I stand on this, so I'll largely notch this up under the "no duh" category, and leave the commentary up to the commentators.

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on March 31, 2009 (boomark / email).