It merely satisfies the sadistic impulses of the torturers. I have said it before, and will say it again here: The best way to get information out of people is to bribe them. It worked against Zarqawi -- his own "friends" sold him out for cash.

Perhaps only one in a hundred terrorists can effectively be bribed, but that is plenty. No secret organization can survive if 1% of its members betray it.

Start out by offering them sex for small & unimportant tidbits of information. Then, for goodness sake, deliver what was promised. One can gradually subvert them with increasingly larger bribes for increasingly important information. When they have told all that they know, release them (the talkers only, of course) with bags of cash. They can not possibly rejoin their former comrades, since they are traitors. However, word will get out about how talkers are treated and more will talk.