&gt;Who are they, and what justifies their torture?<p>&gt;People being tortured don&#x27;t tell you valuable information; they tell you whatever they think will make the torture stop.<p>You&#x27;re already asserting your position, and disguising it as a question. Virtually everyone seriously condoning torture believe it is effective. If they were to believe it wasn&#x27;t effective, they wouldn&#x27;t order it to be done.<p>You may think it&#x27;s not effective, but that should be argued on its own merit. You&#x27;re assuming the conclusion, then pretending that everyone else does and are therefore unjustified.