five myths about torture

A good article here by political scientist Darius Rejali, who has been studying torture. Read the article; if not, here is the gist of Rejali's findings:

Torture did NOT work for the Gestapo (as if we should even see that as a reason to want to use it!)

NOT everybody will talk under torture.

Torture is an unreliable method for gathering intelligence (but is actually good for getting somebody to confess to a crime, not the same thing).

We can NOT tell when somebody is lying (at least, no better than a flip of a coin).

You really can't train somebody to resist torture.