Below is a video clip of an interview by Foreign Policy with former FBI interrogator Jack Cloonan on the use of torture in the "war on terror."  Basically he says that it is counterproductive in that it mythologizes terrorists and in turn helps the terrorists recruit a whole new generation of jihadists.  The most chilling lines come at the end when he says that we (the U.S.) believes that our programs work because we haven’t been attacked since 9/11, but the jihadists say that they’ll get us even if it takes a generation.  He ends with the line "The worst has not been visited upon us yet." 

Now I’ll sit back and wait for the "we’re American, Christian and righteous and we’re fighting for freedom in the face of invading Islamo-fascist hordes" crowd to come and say this expert has no idea what he’s talking about.  They know torture works and is necessary because they listen to Rush every day and he tells them it’s true.  And they’ve watched every episode of 24 at least seven times and if it works for Jack Bauer then surely it works for our boys too. 

Of course they wouldn’t agree with Cloonan when he points out that even the Israelis think that torture doesn’t work.  I mean, what do they know?  They just live on a piece of land the size of a US state and are bordered by whole groups of people who’ve stated for the record that they want Israel annihilated.  It’s not like they have a lot of experience dealing with this kind of thing, right?  Yep, Jack Bauer is a much better source of information.