It is difficult to gather useful information through torture, and attempting to do so can have far-reaching consequencesDoes torture work? The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all used torture. The first problem is that it is extremely difficult to gather useful and actionable information from an individual under torture. Soufan did this with Abu Zubaydah, a senior al-Qaida logistician, and extracted useful information such as the name of the operational mastermind of the 9/11 plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Their systematic use of torture played a significant part in their failure to keep the colony.

Source: The Guardian January 26, 2017 12:14 UTC