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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: combjelly who wrote (822877)12/15/2014 8:11:20 PM
From: i-node  Read Replies (2) of 1577900
 
>> No, we don't know that. The CIA did claim that it did, but can't point to any intelligence we got that lead anywhere.

You can have a football stadium full of Democrats claim in a report that it didn't work. But that doesn't change the facts. At the same time, have those Democrats claim that torture "creates more terrorists." Because both claims have about the same credibility -- which is zero.

It is surely true that not ALL torture works and some methods work better than others. And it is true it doesn't work on EVERYONE (James Stockdale attempted suicide to prevent being tortured into confession). Aside from the obvious common sense of it -- inflicting pain, fear, and discomfort is going to make anyone spill their guts at some level. That is why it has been practiced for centuries. Here are some comments from a biography of Stockdale:

"Inside the interrogation room, the military's Code of Conduct, which presupposes adherence to the Geneva Conventions, was of little value. The torture was simply too intense to limit statements to name, rank, serial number and date of birth. So Stockdale created new rules designed both to protect America's war effort and to keep P.O.W.'s alive. Stockdale ordered his men to endure as much physical abuse as they could before acceding to any of their interrogators' demands - the key, in his view, to preserving a sense of dignity - and to always confess to fellow inmates everything they had been forced to divulge. To carry an unclean conscience was to risk descending into a spiral of guilt and shame that would make them only more vulnerable to themselves and their captors."

Even staunch opponents like McCain -- who knows something about the subject -- have admitted it works, although those admissions haven't been intentional.

You would do well to accept the opinions of three CIA directors over those of a politically motivated document drafted by people who previously condoned the activity they're now condemning.
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