Do you have any proof of one single time that someone, anyone, who was tortured "cracked"? And by "cracked" I mean gave up real information that was then used to stop or change anything?

No, I haven't studied case studies. It just seems fairly obvious to me that if someone has information and you torture them, they will likely spill the beans. I'm pretty sure lots of people did in Vietnam and WWII. Hey if you have evidence, beyond naked assertion, that torture can't work then you win. Please point me to it because the burden of proof is on you.

I'm tempted to appeal to the argument that DaveL made a few days ago. He said something like he knows torture can work because back in 5th grade when Billy Johnson stole his lunch money he sat on his chest and beat him up until he gave it back.

A quick Google search produces this:

"In 1994, 19-year-old Israeli corporal Nahshon Waxman was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists. The Israelis captured the driver of the car used in the kidnapping and tortured him in order to find where Waxman was being held. ... " (Unfortunately that's from Charles Krauthammer so we need to check his facts)

Here's something from TamilNation.org:

"The army arrived at my home at 5.30 in the morning of 30.4.84 in five trucks and three jeeps. They broke down the doors and smashed the windows and put guns through them. Soldiers poured into my room and pulled me from the bed while other soldiers searched the house...

At 11.30 a.m. we arrived at Palaly camp the biggest in the Northern Province, containing large numbers of army personnel. We were thrown into a cell. By this time it was 12.30. We had been given no food or drink. One of the boys asked for water but it was refused.

I was asked what movement I belonged to and I said I did not belong to any movement. They said I was lying. So the following morning at half past 11 they took me to another camp at Elephant Pass, 50 miles away. No food or water was given on the journey. On the way to Elephant Pass they changed trucks four times as a precaution against attack. We reached Elephant Pass at 12.45 p.m. I was put in a cell.

At 2.0 p.m. they took me to another room for questioning. An army captain was in charge. He asked me what movement I belonged to and I told him I did not belong to a movement. They took off my clothes. I was then told to hang on to an iron bar overhead and they beat me with an S-lon pipe filled with sand. This was repeated eight or nine times.

The other boy arrested with me was brought in and they did the same thing with him. Then they asked him to tell them the names of his friends. He gave them the names of friends and classmates. "

You really have no sense of embarrassment, do you?

No.

Hey, bro. I got a nice fresh shiny banana right here. Want it? You know you do.

I thought the whole premise of a "ticking time-bomb" was that it required immediate information. Are you now saying that every instance is a ticking time-bomb? Wouldn't that also mean you would torture every time?

In my scenario, the fuse could be arbitrarily long depending on what point the terrorists were at in the planning, so you could have weeks or even months and perhaps even years. Now granted there are complications as the time gets further out but I have dealt with those in many questions already. Just to anticipate one common already mooted objection: we've already tried everything else and it failed completely so we are faced with torture as a last resort.

That doesn't make every case a ticking time bomb case. But if al-Qaeda goes to the trouble to actually acquire a nuclear device and we discover that they have an active plot to detonate it in an American City a few months later or next year, that is a serious emergency situation. If we then capture one of the conspirators I don't think it matters whether somebody flipped a switch and there's an LED readout countingdown.

If the victim of torture knows he can hand his tormenters a serious defeat by holding out for a predetermined length of time, then he would have to be a serious, grade A coward not to do it.

Wow, that is some brave talk, Mr. Frazer. First of all, you could always threaten to torture the terrorist for the rest of his life and promise to keep him alive to make his life a living hell. Second, even if you were going to stop when the bomb went off that could be weeks or months later. And time goes by real slow when people are tearing your fingernails off, clamping your balls in a vise, and sticking knives in your eyes.

Unless he is Super Terrorist, who can withstand all pain, he's gonna crack. I know I would, and I'm pretty tough. But I guess you are like Daniel Craig in Casino Royale and you would just spit in the torturer's eye and call his mother a whore and beg him to scratch your balls, huh?

Grade A coward? Please. You are a Grade A bullshitter.