Interrogation experts frequently say they can get more and better information faster from a captive by their non-violent, relationship-building methods than by torture, and that torture yields wrong and unreliable information because a torture victim will say whatever he thinks will stop the pain. An important goal of the Bush administration was to get confirmation of wrong information, according to Jon Landay of McClatchy:
The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.
Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime.
Read the rest of Landay's shocking report here.