Torture was "Necessary"

So, here's a news flash: apparently we DO torture, but its OK because its "necessary". Huh? Maybe this will help explain. In the first article, the agent who led the waterboarding of suspected Al Qaeda operative Zubaydah admits to torturing, but says it was necessary. This obviously runs counter to the offical line that the US does not torture. Confused yet? Keep reading... Read some of the words spoken by the Preident about this topic, and the resulting "coercive interrogation" used: "I said he was important," Bush reportedly told Tenet at one of their daily meetings. "You're not going to let me lose face on this, are you?" "No sir, Mr. President," Tenet replied. Bush "was fixated on how to get Zubaydah to tell us the truth," Suskind writes, and he asked one briefer, "Do some of these harsh methods really work?" Interrogators did their best to find out, Suskind reports. They strapped Abu Zubaydah to a water-board, which reproduces the agony of drowning. They threatened him with certain death. They withheld medication. They bombarded him with deafening noise and harsh lights, depriving him of sleep. Under that duress, he began to speak of plots of every variety — against shopping malls, banks, supermarkets, water systems, nuclear plants, apartment buildings, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty. With each new tale, "thousands of uniformed men and women raced in a panic to each...target." And so, Suskind writes, "the United States would torture a mentally disturbed man and then leap, screaming, at every word he uttered." Make sure the President doesn't lose face. Torture suspected terrorist. Run crazily after each supposed piece of "intelligence" gathered. Wonder why none of the threats can be substantiated. And last of all... Repeat - after you destroy the evidence.