Did torture produce the lead to Osama bin Laden's final hideout?

Marcy Wheeler has been following the torture issue carefully. And as of this May 2 post, she didn't think the information in the public record shows that torture produced the lead that wound up in Bin Laden's last stand in Pakistan: The Osama bin Laden Trail Shows Waterboarding Didn't Work Emptywheel 05/02/2011.

But the advocates of torture like Liz Cheney are insisting that it worked. It has now become entirely respectable for Republican politicians and pundits to openly advocate torture, though they are still insisting on the euphemism "enhanced interrogation."

It's true that torture produces less usable information than legal interrogations and deal-making. But the most important point is that torture is wrong, a fundamental violation of human rights. It's also illegal.

Jimmy Carter called in right in Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis (2005): "The primary goal of torture or the threat of torture is not to obtain convictions for crimes, but to engender and maintain fear."

Torture is an instrument of state terror. It's completely inconsistent with the rule of law.

Tags: accountability for torture, jimmy carter, torture

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