It's been proven time and time again that torture doesn't work. It's ineffective and doesn't provide actionable intel.
If you follow the links in this piece you'll find that the newly released cables demonstrate on a number of occasions that 'intelligence' gathered through waterboarding was already known/obtained through other non-violent means.
Movies like Zero Dark 30 and TV shows like 24 will have you believe that there's a ticking time bomb and that the ends justify the means when it comes to torture. But this is complete fiction. The same is true in real life. Torture doesn't save lives. It helps to foment hate towards the west and actually is used as a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations.
And who created Al-Queda again?
They emerged from the Mujahadeen forces in Afghanistan funded and armed by the CIA.
Then what is the answer? You can't be soft on them either as they will only take advantage and see this as a weakness.
You've missed the point of who "them" actually is. Who is "trying to take advantage" ? The Iraqi's that had nothing to do with 911 ? The Saudi, US and Israeli backed moderate headchoppers in Syria ? Who exactly are the bad guys ?
Torture is also an extremely ineffective method of extracting information from a prisoner, (and that's making the assumption that the prisoner even knows any worthwhile information) with victims confessing to anything just to make the pain stop.