Looking for a silver lining.

From the Yoo memo:

… for an act to constitute torture … it must inflict pain that is difficult to endure. Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death. For purely mental pain or suffering to amount to torture … it must result in significant psychological harm of significant duration, e.g., from one of the predicate acts listed in the statute, namely: threats of imminent death; threats of infliction of the kind of pain that would amount to physical torture; infliction of such physical pain as a means of psychological torture; use of drugs or other procedures designed to deeply disrupt the senses, or fundamentally alter an individual’s personality; or threatening to do any of these things to a third party.

The mental harm must be prolonged – or extended over some period of time. “…the acts giving rise to the harm must cause some lasting, though not necessarily permanent, damage.”

Obviously, the Yoo definition of torture significantly expands the international consensus on what is and what isn't torture. But the administration says we are not following a definition as expansive as Yoo's. [Ed: A lie.]

On the plus side, I think the definition may entitle hundreds of thousands of Cubs fans to bring suit.