Definition of Torture?

There is a mighty debate in the Capitol seeking to define what is and what is not torture. Math tests did not make the cut. Gigli didn't make it either. I'm not sure but I think watching The O'Reilly Factor did. I don't think Howard Dean made the cut either.

The question Democratic senators put to Condoleezza Rice last week seemed easy enough to answer: Did the secretary of State nominee consider interrogation practices such as "water boarding," in which a prisoner is made to believe he will drown, to be torture?

She declined to answer.

"I'm not going to speak to any specific interrogation techniques," Rice said, adding that it was up to the Justice Department to define torture.

About the same time, senators on another committee were asking nearly identical questions and getting nearly identical answers from Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush's choice for attorney general.[...]

To protest the administration's Iraq and anti-terror policies — and what they charged was the evasiveness of Rice and Gonzales under questioning — Democratic senators have delayed both confirmation votes until later this week. As a result, the full Senate likely will debate the definition of torture in a session that could embarrass the administration and provide fodder for its international critics.

Ambiguity on prisoner treatment is causing discomfort among some of the administration's allies. Current and former military officers in particular fear it will result in the mistreatment of captured American soldiers.[...]

In an attempt to clarify American standards on torture and interrogation, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — who was tortured as a POW in North Vietnam — and Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) wrote an unambiguous definition last fall: "No prisoner shall be subject to torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment that is prohibited by the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States."

But the language, included in an intelligence bill, was dropped after Rice wrote a letter saying it "provides legal protections to foreign prisoners to which they are not now entitled."

Under fierce confirmation questioning from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Rice offered a different justification for removing the provision: She said it was unnecessary because similar language was already included in a defense spending bill that the president had signed.

But Boxer said that provision had eliminated a specific prohibition on cruelty committed by intelligence officers, who have been implicated in abuses in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

I believe torture is wrong. However, after 9/11, there was nothing inhumane that anyone could do to that one schmuck who attacked us. Iraq was not the enemy even though their leader was a bad person who did bad things.