Monday, March 10, 2008

The effectiveness of torture

Peter Bergen, in The Washington Monthly, points out that the torture of top al Qaeda operatives Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al Shibh was not only reprehensible and uncivilized behavior unworthy of a civilized nation, but also unnecessary and, worse (if that's possible) unproductive. As Bergen notes, the two had revealed all the pertinent details in an interview on al Jazeera in 2002, and the summaries of their "interrogations" provided by the CIA to the 9/11 Commission differed in no substantial respect from what they said then.

Thanks to Kevin Drum's estimable blog on TWM's site for directing TONE to this piece.

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