I.
What you are doing here, is exactly an excercise in "what if" scenarios. Theres a specific term for structuring an argument the way you just did, its called "denying the antecedent":

The consequent in an indicative conditional is claimed to be false because the antecedent is false; if A, then B; not A, therefore not B.

You are saying that since torture caused KSM to give up knowledge, then we were able to take out the cell planning an attack.

But what really happened was... we got lucky that those people in the cell were stupid enough not to change their game plan once KSM was captured.

Edit: rather... that existing policies in law enforcement found and dismantled the cell before KSM was even captured

You don't really know how much useless information KSM did give up before giving up the info about the cell. His turning over the cell could have also just been a red-herring... securing him the means to plant disinformation.

You are assuming that we have learned nothing since 9/11 and there have been no measures put in place since then to prevent a 9/11 type scenario. While we are still vulnerable to an attack, procedures have been revised since then and theres a lot more awareness regarding terrorism.

II.
What happens in the occasion we have tortured innocent people? There have been several cases of the detainees at Gitmo being innocent of any wrongdoing. There are cases of informants turning in innocent travelers for cash bounties. Murat Kurnaz is one of those cases.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...120402307.html

III.
It is shit like this, like your post and the acts of torture themselves that will (to use a George W. Bush term) embolden our enemies. The terrorists will use the outrage over this in their recruiting... it makes us nothing more than the oppressive colonialists they say we are. You fail to see that the cause and effect scenario you have posited also works in reverse.

As a nation that not only sponsors, but endorses torture, would we really be any better than the "terrorist states" we are denouncing? What moral high ground would we have over our enemies who torture and mutilate American soldiers and then drag their corpses through the streets.

You talk about small, craven, and bitter men. Yet in your post, you have shown yourself to be nothing but. Is it the American way to use a cowardly tool like torture?