According to the WSJ, the report seeks effectively to legitimize
torture, first by defining it in exceptionally narrow terms, then by
advising government officials on how to avoid prosecution, even should
they violate those terms. The memo argues "'The infliction of pain or
suffering per se, whether it is physical or mental, is insufficient to
amount to torture...Such suffering must be 'severe,' the lawyers advise,
and they rely on a dictionary definition to suggest it ' must be of
such a high level of intensity that the pain is difficult for the
subject to endure .'" [more]
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