According to the acting chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Steven G. Bradbury, CIA interrogators used tactics that were “quite distressing, or uncomfortable, even frightening, but if it doesn’t involve severe physical pain, and it doesn’t last very long, it may not constitute severe physical suffering. That would be the analysis.”
“Under the mental side,” it “requires an intent to cause prolonged mental harm. That’s a mental disorder that is extended or continuing over time.”
See the article by Dan Eggen, Washington Post, and an opinion in USA Today by Jonathan Turley, and the full video (Real Player - 1hr 16min) of the Oversight Hearing on the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, February 14, 2008. The quotes appear at around the 36-37 min mark.
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