Not so, Blair said in a memorandum to intelligence officials. "High-value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the Al Qaeda organization that was attacking this country," he wrote.

Blair's memo went out the same day Obama released classified Bush administration memos that authorized the interrogation tactics -- such as sleep deprivation -- which Obama has since banned.

There were other memos like Blair's that former Vice President Dick Cheney wants declassified and released to prove that the interrogation methods yielded critical information that foiled terrorist plots against us.

Take, for example, the Justice Department memo of May 30, 2005, that said, as reported in the Washington Post, "the CIA believes 'the intelligence acquired from these interrogations has been a key reason why Al Qaeda has failed to launch a spectacular attack in the West since 11 September 2001.'"

Once those techniques were used, they provided interrogators with the details of a plot to "use East Asian operatives" to crash hijacked airlines into buildings in Los Angeles. They "led to specific, actionable intelligence, as well as a general increase in the amount of intelligence regarding Al Qaeda and its affiliates," the 2005 memo said.

Obama considers these kinds of techniques to be torture. Intelligence officials say they are sometimes necessary to protect American national security in an age of nuclear and biological weapons that can kill millions of people.

Even CIA Director Leon Panetta, who opposed the release of the Bush interrogation memos, does not rule out more aggressive techniques when needed. The agency might use some of these tactics in a crisis "ticking time bomb" scenario, he said at his Senate confirmation hearings.

Meanwhile, the administration remains dangerously divided on the use of coercive interrogation methods, Obama is flip-flopping to keep his left-wing allies on board, and Al Qaeda terrorists are using the interrogation memos he released to train their killers if they are ever taken prisoner.