So did torture work to help find Osama?

[Jeneral2885]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20058921-503544.html

Would the US have found Osama without the detainees "questioned" (by special means) at GITMO? Was troture the right tool? Or could human rights be upheld and the same information be obtained?

[opihimoimoi]

1. Its not confirmed that torture was involved....was it?

[Township75]

2. NPR said "enhanced interrogation techniques" but didn't define that.

So who knows?

[vaberella]

5. Brennan does! He said they were not used to take out OBL!. n/t

[vaberella]

6. It was confirmed that they were NOT used! Brennan said so over and over again.

The Repubs are pushing this meme. It's not true.

[shraby]

3. Those people in Gitmo have been incommunicado for almost

10 years. How in the hell could they know anything useful after being there 1 year??

[vaberella]

4. NO IT DID NOT WORK! Brennan has said so in every interview. The Repubs keep pushing it though.

No it didn't work.

[opihimoimoi]

7. another example of GOPer lying trying to tie in Bush to the Kill Osama Raid I guess

[Jeneral2885]

13. don' call me names

I just pondering. and I'm not an American voter.

[AtomicKitten]

8. Brennan said there is a lot of misinformation out there.

Faux News and the Deathers are spinning this thing silly calling the mission a hoax.

The disinformation campaign is in full swing trying to link the intelligence meticulously gathered for this particular mission with torture.

Brennan called BS on the dis/misinformation.

[vaberella]

10. Brennan and Carney. n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. If torture was involved

We can presume that it happened under Bush's watch and if so, then what was the delay in utilizing that intelligence? :shrug: Bush hasn't been in office for over two years now. For the sake of argument only, if the torture that produced this intel occurred under Obama, how exactly would people like Steve King, Karl Rove, et. al know about it? :shrug: How about making the case that STOPPING torture produced this intelligence breakthrough? Hmmm?

[vaberella]

11. This is a valid point. If the torture was so informational then

they should have gotten him 6 years ago. But Repubs don't get that.

[former9thward]

12. We will never know.

The white house has said information was received from the detainees years ago about Osama's couriers. They gave up their names. It took years to track these couriers to the final location. It is amazing that posters think this all happens so quickly like it is an episode of '24'. Shows naivety and how isolated some are from the real world.

[fujiyama]

14. LOL good point

"24" had everything occurring at breakneck speed. All events in one season were to have taken place during one day, making for tense plot lines and a basic formulaic approach of one episode basically being hour. It made for entertaining TV early on, but eventually got really farfetched and tired.

Real intelligence takes a LOT of hard work, and putting a million pieces of the puzzle together. And it takes a lot of time. That's why I think it's kind of irrelevant to what extent "advanced interrogation techniques" played.

Somewhere along the line I'm sure some not so savory approaches played a role in extracting some information from someone. The real question is, how effective are such approaches? If someone is being tortured, they'll say anything to make it stop, unless they're so well prepared and trained, they simply won't crack. In such a case, they're useless. And even otherwise, if a person is to be trusted with such vital info that could potentially lead to something like the whereabouts of someone as high profile as OBL, I think they'd be trained to have fake answers to give officials and/or die before cracking. Not one torture advocate has shown any evidence that it works in finding useful info.

Color me skeptical. Will torture continue to exist? I'm doubtful it will be stopped, even if indirectly by proxy governments/agencies. Is it morally defensible? Most civilized nations have deemed it not to be and for good reason.

[Avant Guardian]

15. And other idiotic right wing talking points

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

16. nope. the courier's name was given up under normal interrogation.

[Beaverhausen]

17. If it had, why did Bush decommission the hunt for him in 2006?