Torture didn't come from higher up?

From Andrew Sullivan, an FBI interrogator speaks out.

Soufan notes that torture was applied to Zubaydah even though he had provided a great deal of actionable and accurate intelligence from traditional Western interrogation techniques. But he adds a critical detail: CIA officers were in the room during the traditional interrogation tactics. They knew he was cooperative. They did not want to start torturing him. Someone higher up ordered them.

The reason for the torture order apparently has to do with a suspicion from the higher-ups that Zubaydah had additional information he wasn't revealing to interrogators.

That information? The fake Iraq-9/11 connection.

Let's be perfectly clear here. This is a criminal conspiracy to go to war. Torture has clearly been used as a means to invent a pretext and, after the invasion, as a means to perpetuate The Glorious Cause.