well there wasn't really even a coherent plan a either. on the one hand, you have extensive use of torture and claims from military types that it extracted useful legit information---and then you have all kinds of examples that show people basically just making stuff up, giving lots of meaningless names in exchange for privileges at gitmo or---and this is the most typical result of torture--to make the torture stop.
i was somewhat heartened to read of the internal fights over the ethics of torture:
Guantánamo files: US agencies fought internal war over handling of detainees | World news | The Guardian
and grimly not surprised that the result was their replacement with people whose ethical compass did not extend that far.
personally, i think gitmo--and the entire american reaction to 9/11/2001---represents a compromise of something quite fundamental about the united states as a country ostensibly based on the rule of law, something so fundamental that it's hard not to see in this anything but a victory for the putative motives of the ghosts who blew into the pentagon, trade center and field in central pa.