Many of you folks know this a real hot topic from where I stand. I have always maintained that torture is dishonorable, intrinsically evil, and it destroys our own system of justice far more thoroughly then any Jihadi could ever hope to achieve. We have known since the Middle Ages that people will say anything…and that is anything…to stop torture. They will tell you they had sex with the Devil, or sex with your own buried grandparents if that is what it takes. They may even tell you the truth, if you can find it among the fabrications spun by the subject.

We also know that it destroys the practitioner as surely as it destroys those it is practiced upon.

So here, via Sully, is another voice from Afghanistan on the subject…

The man, who can’t be named for security reasons, has nearly two decades of experience as a military interrogator and Human Intelligence (HUMINT) specialist. He interrogated suspected high-value targets at Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan, where he is currently stationed.

“Listen,” he said, “waterboarding and/or other coercive techniques did nothing to contribute to our attempts to track down UBL (Usama bin Laden). What did succeed was weeks, months and years of diligent, laborious, and dedicated work – all within the bounds of legal and ethical boundaries….No torture, no waterboarding, no coercion – nothing inhumane – is considered a useful tool in our work.”

On the subject of blowback, he continued:

I cannot even count the amount of times that I personally have come face to face with detainees, who told me they were primarily motivated to do what they did, because of hearing that we committed torture. Even the rumor of torture is enough to convince an army of uneducated and illiterate, yet religiously motivated young boys to strap bombs to their chests and blow themselves up while killing whoever happens to be around – police, soldiers, civilians, women, or children. Torture committed by Americans in the past continues to kill Americans today.