Illegal and saves lives?

Per a CNN story:

Cheney has said he wants the documents released so there can be a more "honest debate" on the Bush administration's approval of "alternative" interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists. He argued that those techniques provided valuable intelligence that saved American lives, but critics say they amounted to the illegal torture of prisoners in U.S. custody.

Emphasis is mine. Why are these two things exclusive? Maybe there could be some honest dialogue if people dumped their tribal idealism and confronted the issue in the raw.

Anywho - I'm wholly against torture. People should experience consequences for breaking the law. I listened to a really interesting story on NPR about contracted interrogators who were mostly responsible. The best quote, I thought (and I'm probably butchering it), was when a senator said that 'torture persists because it works.' And Ali Soufan replied, 'No, torture persists because it's easier to hit someone than outsmart them.' So true.