Using Chinese Torture Methods Is A Mistake

This can't be happening.

When I read the New York Times story today about how U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo, Cuba used Chinese torture methods against terrorist suspects there, I was shocked.

Seems the interrogators found the techniques in a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese torture methods used during the Korean War. The methods resulted in false confessions and the study seeked to determine just how these prisoners had been brainwashed.

So 50 years later, the template for torture is copied word for word from the study - and then used at Guantanamo. Back when these tactics were originally used the United States was quick to call them torture. And did it escape everyone's notice that the tactics resulted in false confessions? Are we that lame?

Even tough guys like John McCain will tell you torture is a bad idea. But to reach back for techniques that result in false confessions accomplishes what?