You catch more flies with honey than vinegar

Zero Dark Thirty is a film that deals a lot  the issue of torture as an effective interrogation technique. I will state my own opinion right now, that it should not be used as a form of interrogation, not only because of it being morally wrong, but that any information given under such duress cannot ever be completely accepted as fact. If I was being water boarded and sleep deprived to within an in inch of my life, I would say just about anything. Studies into these interrogation techniques back up this argument, which is why so many countries have ratified the  Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which prohibits torture.

I actually the film Zero Dark Thirty supports this claim. The graphic interrogation scenes early on show the kind of conditions detainees experienced at the hands of the Americans. The man being interrogated was physically beaten and psychologically humiliated. However this did not lead to the prevention of the explosion early on in the film. The American succeeded in breaking his mind, but got no usable intelligence to prevent the catastrophe. The closest they got with this method was nothing but broken gibbering and sobs as the man merely recited days of the week to prevent being crammed into a box for who knows how long.

There is also the fact that, while the American's were permitted to use these tactics for several years, it did not result in them locating Bin Laden. In fact it was only years later, when these methods were supposedly abandoned did they locate him.