who do you trust, conservatives?

Most on the right seem to accept as gospel Dick “We will be greeted as liberators” Cheney’s assertion that America is less safe because we no longer torture. Gen. David Petraeus, who saved the administration’s ass in Iraq, disagrees.
I know the Washington Post won’t dissuade many conservatives, but their reporting here is thorough.

In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida’s tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida — chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates — was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.

According to a top intelligence official, millions of dollars were wasted “chasing false alarms.”

“I’ve seen a report that was written, based upon the intelligence that we collected then, that itemizes the specific attacks that were stopped by virtue of what we learned through those programs,” Cheney asserted, adding that the report is “still classified,” and, “I can’t give you the details of it without violating classification.”

Since 2006, Senate intelligence committee members have pressed the CIA, in classified briefings, to provide examples of specific leads that were obtained from Abu Zubaida through the use of waterboarding and other methods, according to officials familiar with the requests.

The agency provided none, the officials said.

Administration mouthpieces like O’Reilly and Hannity continue to claim that, ahem, enhanced interrogation techniques saved American lives. Their proof? Dick Cheney says so.