For you to say that "torture does not work" is misleading, because you have not defined its meaning. Cutting off people's fingers may produce mixed results and result in some degree of misinformation. Stress positions, waterboarding, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation and other soft measures to psychologically break down the prisoner are proven techniques, with a track record of success when used by professional interrogators around the world.
That's really they key here - professional interrogators. An army captain on the battlefield may be more inclined to punish a just-captured prisoner than be concerned with the intelligence value the prisoner may represent, and is certainly not trained to efficiently extract information. A professional interrogator is specifically tasked with obtaining useful intelligence, and duly trained to accomplish this task.
This isn't an episode of 24 where Jack starts shooting people through the hand and twisting their fingers back. Professional interrogation takes time, considerable planning and coordination.
For anyone interested, I'd recommend reading "The Interrogators: Task Force 500 and America's Secret War Against Al Qaeda". You can find it on Amazon.
Since you brought up McCain... as a captured navy aviator, he was not tortured to extract useful intelligence that the Vietnamese could exploit to further the war. He was tortured as punishment, and to elicit cooperation in furthering North Vietnamese propaganda. In his book, he describes an especially horrid four days of severe beatings that, to this day prevent him from lifting his arms above his head. He finally broke and agreed to film a propaganda video... “I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine.”
This is VERY different from the mission tasked to American interrogators, and given the fact that al Qaeda is on the verge of defeat around the world, evidence that our guys know what they're doing.
That's really they key here - professional interrogators. An army captain on the battlefield may be more inclined to punish a just-captured prisoner than be concerned with the intelligence value the prisoner may represent, and is certainly not trained to efficiently extract information. A professional interrogator is specifically tasked with obtaining useful intelligence, and duly trained to accomplish this task.
This isn't an episode of 24 where Jack starts shooting people through the hand and twisting their fingers back. Professional interrogation takes time, considerable planning and coordination.
For anyone interested, I'd recommend reading "The Interrogators: Task Force 500 and America's Secret War Against Al Qaeda". You can find it on Amazon.
Since you brought up McCain... as a captured navy aviator, he was not tortured to extract useful intelligence that the Vietnamese could exploit to further the war. He was tortured as punishment, and to elicit cooperation in furthering North Vietnamese propaganda. In his book, he describes an especially horrid four days of severe beatings that, to this day prevent him from lifting his arms above his head. He finally broke and agreed to film a propaganda video... “I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine.”
This is VERY different from the mission tasked to American interrogators, and given the fact that al Qaeda is on the verge of defeat around the world, evidence that our guys know what they're doing.
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