used for gaining information.  And this is the danger in the US that they think it is so from watching programs like 24.

But anyone of our Spanish colleagues here could confirm if they experienced Franco, or Argentinian members can confirm,

Torture is used by an belligerent regime to terrorize a population or sub-population into submission and it only takes a few and a whisper campaign of what is going on.  Stasi were masters of this.  They only had to turn a few to convince the population to go along.

Torture is not effective for information, it's very effective for authoritarian control.

"Schiller sprach zu Goethe, Steck in dem Arsch die Flöte! Goethe sagte zu Schiller, Mein Arsch ist kein Triller!"