Does desire for revenge explain CIA practice of severe interrogation?

Avani Mehta Sood and Kevin Carlsmith study cited in The Huffington Post, December 15, 2014

Kevin Carlsmith and Avani Mehta Sood argue that the effectiveness of torture, as measured in terms of genuine intelligence collected, may in fact not be the key issue at all. Instead, much more important might be the desire to harm those who have attacked us (or those who are associated with them), and humiliate those who have made us feel vulnerable.