So, Dick Cheney and friends want to claim that torture is responsible for Obama finding bin Laden. Think so?
Many argue that when a prisoner gets tortured, he will say anything just to make the torture stop. Perhaps they are right in cases when the prisoner is willing to speak quickly. Once a prisoner gets questioned under torture, though, recollection becomes dubious. In fact, an interrogatee's responses are affected by the manner of questioning -- and can be molded into bizarre false confessions even in the absence of stress.
Let us revisit the myths about torture, beginning with the idea that it is a way to extract credible intelligence. Let's begin by considering how hard it is to get an accurate story in everyday life...