It's not about a ticking bomb

Further to this post, read the article on torture by David Luban:

Real intelligence gathering is not a made-for-TV melodrama. It consists of acquiring countless bits of information and piecing together a mosaic. So the most urgent question has nothing to do with torture and ticking bombs. It has to do with brutal tactics that fall short - but not far short - of torture employed on a fishing expedition for morsels of information that might prove useful but usually don't, according to people who have worked in military intelligence...

The real torture debate, therefore, isn't about whether to throw out the rulebook in the exceptional emergencies. Rather, it's about what the rulebook says about the ordinary interrogation...
.....
Assaults on human dignity are not who we are or what we stand for. Given the U.S. commitment under the torture convention to "undertake to prevent" CID [cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment], why are we using it abroad in cases that have nothing to do with ticking time bombs?

(Via Clive Davis.)