# Has U.S. Interrogations Actually Saved Lives (part 2)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-u-s-interrogations-actually-saved-lives-part-2/494751
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 29, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-u-s-interrogations-actually-saved-lives-part-2/494751 "2009-04-29T18:52:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-u-s-interrogations-actually-saved-lives-part-2/494751/1 "2009-04-29T18:52:49Z")
Last summer I [asked](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=431878&highlight=effective):
> [@Has U.S. Interrogations Actually Saved Lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-u-s-interrogations-actually-saved-lives/414734/1):
>
> …Are there documented cases of lives saved due to information gotten from these techniques, that wouldn’t have been gotten by previous standards of interrogations?
It’s almost a year later, has any new evidence been unearthed? I am interested if the “pro-torture/enhanced interrogation” camp has ever produced anything concrete they would view as evidence to support the idea that it saves lives.
(Please note: I am not interested in hearing how difficult such evidence might be to get, I am not interested in a general debate on the morality of these techniques, or how they were used or prosecutions or anything like that. All I’m interested in is evidence of efficacy.)
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### Author:  [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-u-s-interrogations-actually-saved-lives-part-2/494751/2 "2009-04-30T11:59:04Z")
The details aren’t out, but Cheney has claimed on the record that he has personal knowledge of such information.
> **[Cheney Calls for Release of Memos Showing Results of Interrogation Efforts](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cheney-calls-for-release-of-memos-showing-results-of-interrogation-efforts)**
>
> Former Vice President Cheney says he knows how successful the interrogation techniques were in collecting intelligence for the United States and wants that information to be released to the public as well as the legal memos explaining the decision to...
> [@](#):
>
> Former Vice President Cheney says he knows how successful the interrogation techniques were in collecting intelligence for the United States and wants that information to be released to the public as well as the legal memos explaining the decision to allow the heavily criticized methods.
Kind of beside the point if you ask me – it is still illegal/abhorrent if it works.
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-u-s-interrogations-actually-saved-lives-part-2/494751/3 "2009-04-30T18:08:07Z")
"George Tenet writes in his memoir, “At the Center of the Storm,” about the CIA interrogation of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed:
"I believe none of these successes [in foiling terrorist plots] would have happened if we had had to treat KSM like a white-collar criminal – read him his Miranda rights and get him a lawyer…
“From our interrogation of KSM and other senior al Qaeda members . . . we learned many things – not just tactical information leading to the next capture. For example, **more than 20 plots had been put in motion by al Qaeda against U.S. infrastructure targets,** including communications nodes, nuclear power plants, dams, bridges and tunnels.”
(quotes are from [an editorial in the Wall Street Journal](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124087384453961191.html) )
Tenet may not be an unbiased source, of course. But I doubt if there will ever be any objectively verifiable evidence.
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### Author:  [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-u-s-interrogations-actually-saved-lives-part-2/494751/4 "2009-04-30T18:45:44Z")
Thanks for the answers all. I don’t consider Tenet’s quotes relevant, as he doesn’t link the info to interrogation techniques (and I believe others have said that everything he spilled was from traditional techniques). As for Cheney’s - I’ll believe in his evidence when it’s presented.
Any others?