According to reports, the terrorists who carried out last week's attacks in Brussels acted sooner than originally planned because they feared that captured terrorist Salah Abdeslam would inform authorities of the attacks. Apparently, they need not have worried.
Belgian officials questioned Abdeslam only lightly, and not at all about possible new attacks. Instead, using the discredited law enforcement model, they focused on the Paris attacks of last November, presumably hoping to obtain a confession.
Back in the days of the controversy over waterboarding, there was talk about a "ticking time bomb" scenario. The question was: When we know there's time bomb ready to go off, but don't know the location, is it okay to waterboard a captured terrorist who likely has knowledge of the impending attack?
Read Paul's analysis here. In my view, failing to extort information that can save dozens of innocent lives because we allow captured terrorists to stonewall is way, way beyond inhuman. When you have no appetizing choices, you pick the least bad.
As far as I know, there has yet to be a terror plot which was thwarted by enhanced interrogation. Given the inconsequential threat that terror attacks pose to the public safety and the yet to be demonstrated effectiveness of enhanced interrogation, I think that we would be better off keeping to the moral high ground.