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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: wonk who wrote (109856)	4/26/2009 3:49:33 PM
From: Cogito	Respond to of 541490

Wonk - The reason I said that there is some disagreement within the intelligence community about the efficacy of torture was because there have been some statements made by Dennis Blair to the effect that "high value information" was obtained by those methods in the interrogation of some top Al Qaeda people. His statements have been called into question by others who are familiar with the specifics of the cases he refers to, so that's disagreement. But you are certainly correct that there is nearly universal agreement, backed by decades of data, that coercion produces less timely and less accurate intelligence. - Allen PS: I didn't feel the need to mention Dick Cheney's statements about how effective the "harsh interrogation techniques" were because his credibility was shot years ago.

To: wonk who wrote (109856)	4/26/2009 4:14:41 PM
From: Cogito	Respond to of 541490

Wonk - FierceBob has weighed in on the "is waterboarding torture" question. He has a good idea for its defenders. fiercebob.com - Allen

To: wonk who wrote (109856)	4/26/2009 8:15:20 PM
From: Mark Marcellus	Respond to of 541490

There's one other aspect of the torture debate that, to my knowledge, hasn't been brought up at all - one that I would really like to see addressed by those who defend these methods. Regardless of what one thinks of the results obtained, there is a serious possibility that we have completely compromised our ability to ever bring these people to justice in a court of law. I can understand why the Administration isn't making this point, as it would only further compromise the already difficult position they have been put in by these past practices. But if we're going to have a serious public discussion about whether these practices "worked", it seems to me that this is an important consideration.