Torture reliably produces counterproductive and unreliable intelligence. [causal]
Because of the slowness of communications in the 1950s and 1960s, it took a year or more for the message of abuses perpetrated in Algeria to sink in. Now, with the Internet and al-Jazeera, one set of photos from Abu Ghraib is enough to inflame hatred across the Islamic world against the West, providing excuse for all the beheadings and atrocities carried out by al-Qaeda. From the Inquisition to the Gestapo and the "Battle of Algiers," history teaches us that, in the production of reliable intelligence, regardless of the moral issue, torture is counter-productive.
XREF: Connects to debates about enhanced interrogation effectiveness post-9/11 and how abuses fuel radicalization, echoing arguments from both intelligence and counterterrorism literature.
Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 52