Because it is fools gold. Perhaps you get frustrated and whip out the red hot pokers. Or you are angry and want revenge. Or you are simply a sadist. People rub rabbits feet for luck. We know that has zero effect on the outcome of anything. But people have been doing that kind of thing for thousands upon thousands of years, so it must work. I think your logical leap here is rather long and off the mark.
People still do a lot of things that don't make a lot of sense. People believe in supernatural things. Torture is great for forcing statements and intimidation, but not for getting actionable information.
so a bunch of trained professionals who simply want accurate information like the cia and kgb did this because they are sadists, not because it works? sorry I don't buy it.
So why do I drink a Jim Beam and coke and watch the game in a different room than my wife does for Vols games? Should I be rubbing a lucky rabbit's foot too?
I've sure tried to beat them. Thought "man there is absolutely no way they'll be able to tell my lies." They get me every single time, and it's not even close. Maybe im bad at it but amazes me every time.
I should make the disclaimer that all of my knowledge on the subject is from documentaries. That said, I think the danger of false positives and false negatives really make the technology suspect at best.
Read that ludicrous NPR article. What a piece of crap. He couldn't actually put asunder what the CIA said and the committee didn't either, so he equivocated in every way possible to avoid admitting value. Read better. Won't bother with CNN.
I was 13-14 at the time, so while understood what was going, I wasn't old enough to process AND remember a lot of this case. So I'm looking forward to this. I remember watching the verdict in class. At the time this guy was larger than life to a young teenager. He was still freaking Nordberg for god sakes.
Read better. He actually said nothing. He equivocated for the entire article and never actually stated what he was clearly dying to state.
The Pakistani physician helped the CIA run a fake hepatitis vaccine program to try to extract DNA to determine if Bin Laden lived at the compound in question. We left him high and dry and is rotting in a prison for the next 30 years. That is far worst than torture and we are doing nothing to free him. Enhanced interrogations were used to get leads to where they found the alleged compound of Bin Laden in Pakistan. Their major break was obtaining the identity of the courier for Bin Laden through advanced interrogations. Leon Panetta admitted this helped lead to Bin Laden's eventual whereabouts.
I think is closer to reality. We don't really know, but I do believe we screwed a physician there. I do know that the advanced interrogation provides tons of intel. I do know that we got a lot of Intel from the imprisoned guys. If a dill hole like Panetta has to finally admit it, it's real. Obama didn't can the program because he knows the value.