Use Of Intelligence Obtained By Torture

[mushroom25]

report in DM that the "ink cartridge" plot of 2010 was foiled by the UK authorities using intelligence obtained by the Saudi authorities from the torturing of a suspect.

(I won't risk the wrath of the masses by providing a link - google it for yourselves).

should intelligence obtained in this manner be used to prevent the nefarious acting against us, or should it be refused?

[ichkeria]

Of course it should!
A no-brainer surely. If you have intelligence you act on it regardless of the source.
Imagine that you are a security official presented with a report clearly and plausibly indicating that a plot is afoot to kill people. But you suspect that the information is the result of torture etc
By this stage you are not going to say 'Oh well that is terrible I will ignore it'
That is not the same as condoning the methods

[Svejk]

As in, let a plane with 300 people take off, blow up, and kill everyone on board because we have principles.
Interesting question, but once the info is there, it has to be acted on, doesn't it?

[rockyracoon]

Yes, it should definitely be used.

[Svejk]

Blimey, me and ichi have agreed about something. Funny old world. ;)

[Zacs-Master]

I agree with you too. Hope you were sat down.

[ChillDoubt]

http://www.intoxination.net/sites/default/files/1471175_812797408743175_8161541135339337550_n.jpg

http://turtleboysports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/post2.jpg

[Slapshot]

Intel, in whatever form you can get it is always useful, some of the best intelligence coup's over the years have saved countless numbers of lives. What do you do, we send our guys out to defend the aims of our political masters they get captured; do you think a opposing force will play nice, nonsense, they will use every form of barbarism to glean the tiniest bits of intel.

We make use of what we can get however it's obtained...and we don't ask questions about it!

[youngmafbog]

Well it should be noted and looked at further. The big problem with information provided under torture is that you can get to a point where the person tells you what you want to hear. That may not be the truth as they know it but they just want it to stop.

It also depends on what you classify as torture. Some can be more useful and reliable than others.

[ichkeria]

"Well it should be noted and looked at further. The big problem with information provided under torture is that you can get to a point where the person tells you what you want to hear."

That is the other side to it of course. Tho' certain info demands to be acted on in certain situations. What you do subsequently with the source is an interesting thought though ...

[Peter Pedant]

DB we didnt just bin the results of the experiments performed Dr mengele did we ?

well I thought it had been settled 20 y ago or thereabouts that the results were unusable as badly performed and unreliable, however .....

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/naziexp.html

revives the discussion to amazing length

however DB has missed the activities of the Japanese in unit 731 in Manchuria where wiki comments: "Instead of being tried for war crimes, the researchers involved in Unit 731 were given immunity in exchange for their data on human experimentation.[8] "

but for some reason we never hear about the Japanese experiments

Some Americans did argue on the lines of exclusion of evidence in criminal trials - " fruits of the poisoned tree"

Information obtained by torture cannot be used in criminal trials ( we signed the treaty a few years ago )