Torture doesn`t make sense. Under torture people will say just about anything to make it stop. It may be the truth, it may be not. I don`t think they were tortured for information. Putin wanted the pictures to show his people he`s tough on terrorism.
Torture can help put together simple building blocks for things that you sort of already know and can verify or that can be quickly acted on or that lead to the useful questions for the guy who is next in line, but it isn’t the way to go seeking to learn about things that you don’t know and are trying to discover, to unlock unknowns.
There’s video of two of the four, upon capture, singing like birds. Obviously, the Russian FSB, Mossad, CIA, MI6 know what they’re doing from many decades of experience. They are the pros, you and I don’t really know. The terrorists were brutalized after their initial interrogation to confirm and expand upon their initial statements. Since these terrorists had zero ideological motivation to withhold information, perhaps the torture wasn’t necessary. We just don’t know.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4226560/posts
Oh yeah, regarding torture for Russian internal PR, you are correct. I don’t know if you saw my reply on this thread, #63, but I concur with you and the guy I quoted take on it.