SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-Arizona): The entire world already knows that we water-boarded prisoners, it knows that we subjected prisoners to various other types of degrading treatment. It knows we use black sites, secret prisons. Those practices haven't been a secret for a decade.



What might come as a surprise, not just to our enemies, but to many Americans is how little these practices did to aid our efforts to bring 9/11 culprits to justice and to find and prevent terrorist attacks today and tomorrow. That could be a real surprise since it contradicts the many assurances provided by intelligence officials, on the record and in private, that "enhanced interrogation" techniques were indispensable in the war against terrorism.



And I suspect the objection of those same officials to the release of this report is really focused on that disclosure. Torture's ineffectiveness.



Because we gave up much in the expectation that torture would help keep us safer, too much. Obviously we need intelligence to defeat our enemies, but we need reliable evidence. Torture produces more misleading information than actual intelligence.



