A Quick Update on the Issue of Torture:

The New York Times reports that Admiral Dennis C. Blair, President Obama's national intelligence director, wrote in a private memo that although some valuable information came from interrogations using torture, the policy hurt us far more than it helped us :


“The information gained from these techniques was valuable in some instances, but there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means... The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."


It is interesting to note that many conservative news organizations have chosen to focus on the fact that valuable information was gained -- ignoring the "bottom line" conclusion that the benefits from using torture were "far outweighed" by the harm they caused and "are not essential to our national security."

As I wrote in my article on torture (Torture: The Jack Bauer Dictum), the only rational way to evaluate a policy is through an objective cost/benefit analysis. The bottom line is that torture is emotionally satisfying, but actually very counterproductive.