> my guess is that torture can be effectively used as a part of the equation. Otherwise Obama would have closed gitmo.
There are plenty of other explanations, given that it is such a political issue. By that argument, the "War on Terror" and the TSA must be unarguably effective, despite all evidence to the contrary, or otherwise we would have abandoned them.
The torture report released in December, as well as the information we already had about waterboarding even a decade ago, show that most torture is by and large not effective at extracting information[0].
Which raises the question: what is the real goal of practices like "rectal feeding", or allowing these abuses to continue[1]?
[0] Though even if it had been, this wouldn't be an acceptable defense of the practice.
There are plenty of other explanations, given that it is such a political issue.
Well, I don't know. It made a liar out of Obama, and I think that if he thought he could close it he would.
I believe it is the US military's best interest- for the well being of any US soldiers that might be caught by the enemy- that the world be assured that torture doesn't work.
But I really suspect that the numbers are different from what we hear, and somebody showed Obama an estimate of lives saved from the practice, and he decided that he couldn't be the one to pull the plug.
TSA is another case in point. They are expensive and people complain. But if they has techniques that worked they would probably keep them quiet.
I saw this kind of deception decades ago. The DIA assured us that certain techniques of getting information (spying) didn't work. It later famously came out that they indeed did, and quite well at that.
I hope I'm wrong about this. And I have no inside information. Just a hunch.
Beria of the NKVD tortured. His torture wouldn't have been public knowledge as much as Gitmo is. Why did he beat people on the feet unless it was useful?
There are plenty of other explanations, given that it is such a political issue. By that argument, the "War on Terror" and the TSA must be unarguably effective, despite all evidence to the contrary, or otherwise we would have abandoned them.
The torture report released in December, as well as the information we already had about waterboarding even a decade ago, show that most torture is by and large not effective at extracting information[0].
Which raises the question: what is the real goal of practices like "rectal feeding", or allowing these abuses to continue[1]?
[0] Though even if it had been, this wouldn't be an acceptable defense of the practice.
[1] http://mic.com/articles/106006/16-horrifying-excerpts-from-t...