And then He took us into the war.

Besides being illegal (Shystee) and evil (British law lords, the UK Supremes), torture doesn’t work. Why? Because tortured people will say whatever they think their torturers want to hear to make the torture stop.

Well, let me qualify “doesn’t work.” If you want to get someone to tell you want they thinkn you want to hear, then torture does work. And when Bush outsourced torture to Egypt, torture sure worked for Him. Douglas Jehl:

Qaeda-Iraq Link U.S. Cited Is Tied to Coercion Claim

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 - The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner [Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi] while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government officials.

The Bush administration used Mr. Libi’s accounts as the basis for its prewar claims, now discredited, that ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda included training in explosives and chemical weapons.

Nice euphemisms, eh? “Coercion,” “harsh treatment”…

Yes, torture sure works: Heck, Bush went war and won the 2006 midterms! What’s not to like? Read on, ’cause it gets better: Rummy’s DIA thought Libi’s info was no good back in 2002, before Bush started making speeches about it.

[Officials said Libi] provided his most specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January 2002, in a process known as rendition.

The new disclosure provides the first public evidence that bad intelligence on Iraq may have resulted partly from the administration’s heavy reliance on third countries to carry out interrogations of Qaeda members and others detained as part of American counterterrorism efforts.

And you know what? Even Rummy’s DIA thought Libi’s information was no good:

Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, made public last month unclassified passages from the February 2002 document, which said it was probable that Mr. Libi “was intentionally misleading the debriefers.”

The document showed that the Defense Intelligence Agency had identified Mr. Libi as a probable fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda involving illicit weapons.

Why are Republicans pro-torture?

Because it’s illegal? [Abramoff] Because it’s evil? [Nixon] Because it doesn’t work? [Katrina]

Those are the only reasons I can think of….