YOO-BYBEE II….Yesterday the ACLU finally got hold of the infamous August 2002 “Yoo-Bybee II” memo, which outlines acceptable interrogation techniques for CIA prisoners held outside the U.S. I figure you probably want to know what’s kosher and what’s not, so here it is:
Sorry about that. It’s all still a secret, I guess, even though Bybee concluded that not one single technique outlined in the memo constituted torture. Why? Because, among other thing, “The objective of these techniques is not to cause severe physical pain.”
Read that again: “The objective of these techniques is not to cause severe physical pain.” This is about as breathtaking as sophistry can get since, of course, causing severe pain was the whole point. Spencer Ackerman has more here, if you have the stomach for it.
