Defenders of these techniques have claimed that they got Abu Zubaydah to give up information leading to the capture of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a top aide to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and Mr. Padilla. This is false. The information that led to Mr. Shibh’s capture came primarily from a different terrorist operative who was interviewed using traditional methods. As for Mr. Padilla, the dates just don’t add up: the harsh techniques were approved in the memo of August 2002, Mr. Padilla had been arrested that May.

And this is why we don't let go of the torture question. It doesn't work, has actively made the country less safe by re-splitting the cooperation between FBI and intelligence, has actively made the country less safe by becoming a recruiting poster, damaged our credibility internationally, and trashed our position as a human rights leader.

This isn't just a failure, it's a disaster of incredible proportion and we're going to be trying to clean it up for decades.