And apparently, according the Cheney, beating someone to death or inducing hypothermia where the individual dies isn't torture either. The two men beat to death were at the Bagram detention facility in Afghanistan and the beating were done by US soldiers. Between 2002 and 2003 literally hundreds of prisoners were beaten and, as noted, two of them died. No one has been held accountable for these cold blooded murders.

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intel obtained by torture should always be carefully analyzed and cross-referenced before being considered useful … and to my knowledge it is.
Torture can be an effective tool but should never be considered a sole source of intel.

Drugs in combination with hypnosis, polygraphs, and more advanced "brain fingerprinting tech", torture, cross-referencing with other subjects of interrogation, referencing the history of the subject, associations, and a litany of other considerations have to be employed before intel from torture can be considered useful. To think that a subject is tortured and then action taken on the info is as naïve as saying that torture is 100% ineffective.

Try to remember that the ppl tortured had (mostly) been caught in combat with NATO forces, most of these would much rather be inside America killing your leaders, family, friends and you. But luckily they cant afford a plane ticket to Washington, or know they would be screened.

The methods of torture in foreign countries (perhaps used by us as well) would make what is common knowledge (mainstream news) seem very mild compared to Guantanamo.

Methods used for extracting intel are far more advanced than what I have seen discussed on this thread so far, no method can be said to be ineffective or obsolete, the NSA extracts most intel now from internet, cell-phones, and sophisticated spy tech which is classified.
Torture is still employed for a reason and the CIA’s methods are more crude than some other agencies.

Has anyone ever asked: If we criticize those who defend us too much we will disempower them.

“ppl will say what agency wants to hear under torture” … this may be true, but doesn’t make the confession false.