Re:Why spies never discover anything useful
by thaumasiotes on Tuesday December 03, 2013 @09:18AM
(#6840344)
Yes, my "you are wrong" was not denying that torture can get useful information. It referred to the comment "no one doubts that", which is wrong. That's why I followed it by saying "for many people it is an item of faith that torture cannot produce useful information".
Yes, if you torture the right people you will get useful information. People who are tortured will give up the information they have at some point.
The problem is that we often torture people who have no information, and so they tell us what we think we want to hear.