Why the CIA won't waterboard, even if ordered by the president

Re:Why the CIA won't waterboard, even if ordered by the pres... by dv_dt on Monday April 11, 2016 @11:53AM (#11472364)

But you shouldn't grant that it has any utility, as soon as you start torturing a suspect any information they give is uncertain. You'll never know without further research if it's made up to stop the torture or if it's real information. There is already enough uncertainty in the intelligence game without generating even more.

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Re:Why the CIA won't waterboard, even if ordered by the pres... by peeters on Monday April 11, 2016 @12:33PM (#11472790)

I won't grant that it has utility, but that's from my ignorance. It might have utility; I don't know and am not qualified to say.

The argument used matters to me, because if tomorrow it's proven that torture works, I still believe that civilized nations should be against it. If we hinge the argument on its utility, then when we lose that premise we lose the argument.

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Re:Why the CIA won't waterboard, even if ordered by the pres... by Retric on Monday April 11, 2016 @12:17PM (#11472616)

Some information is verifiable. It's useless in a war setting as bad information can be extremely costly, but questions like "Where did you hide the money?" are different as digging is generally a low risk activity.

So, from a utility standpoint, it's far more likely to be useful for the Mob than any government.

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