Torture Does Not Work

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States used various torture techniques to extract information from terrorist suspects.  All of these techniques were illegal and, according to experts on intelligence extraction, ineffective.

For instance, Khalil Sheik Mohammed, the "mastermind" behind the 9/11 attacks, was captured and tortured using a technique called "water-boarding."  According to this technique, a person is made to feel as if he is drowning until he reveals information.  The CIA did this to him over 180 times.

Did they obtain useful information?  No.  KSM admitted to having committed every act of terrorism from the past 20 years to try to avoid further torture.  Obviously, he could not have done everything he admitted to, but he freely admitted to doing everything under torture.  Therefore, torture always seems to provide "misinformation." 

In the American newspapers it was (ridiculously) reported that he had been involved in virtually every major terrorist action of his generation.

Furthermore, because he had been tortured, he could not be brought to trial in the United States - where a judge might have dismissed his case (eliminated his case) because of the barbaric treatment shown toward him.  He has been given a "military" trial, which is, basically, an unfair type of trial where there is no doubt that the defendant will be found guilty.

Now there is a movie called Zero Dark Thirty which plans to profit from the attack on Osama bin Laden's compound and the killing of bin Laden by US Navy Seals.  The only problem is that, according to Senator John McCain (a man who had been tortured), the scene in the film where the CIA gets useful information due to torture is inaccurate.

http://news.msn.com/politics/mccain-rejects-torture-scene-in-zero-dark-thirty

1)  Do you think that torture works?

2)  Can torture ever be ethical?

3)  Do you think the CIA was "right" in using torture so frequently?

4)  Why do you think these filmmakers used a scene in the movie in which torture "worked," when, in reality, torture did not work?

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Yes, I'm the guy who caused the "scandal" in Asia two years ago :P http://www.shoutcastblog.com/2010/05/11/wondergirls-were-mistreated-by-jyp-entertainment/

Yes, I'm also the guy who wrote the very funny ESL book: New York City Sucks, But You'll Wanna Live Here Anyway http://www.amazon.com/Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS