Torture DIDN'T Get Key Intelligence

Washington's Blog guest blogging at naked capitalism:

There’s a new meme widely circulating today claiming that torture was okay after all, because it helped us locate and kill Bin Laden. See this, this, this and this.
As ABC News notes:

The revelation that intelligence gleaned from the CIA’s so-called black sites helped kill bin Laden was seen as vindication for many intelligence officials who have been repeatedly investigated and criticized for their involvement in a program that involved the harshest interrogation methods in U.S. history.
“We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day,” said Marty Martin, a retired CIA officer who for years led the hunt for bin Laden.

But as ABC notes in the next paragraph:

Mohammed did not reveal the names while being subjected to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, former officials said. He identified them many months later under standard interrogation, they said, leaving it once again up for debate as to whether the harsh technique was a valuable tool or an unnecessarily violent tactic.

Torture apologists are trying to defend themselves and give Bush credit for this success.  For one, Bush didn't follow it up.  For another, torture does not work.  Treating people like human beings does work.  Torture is immoral and a war crime for which Japanese soldiers were tried after World War II.  There is no reason that the U.S. should have ever used torture.