XDA

In case the attempts of the left (ACLU, Amnesty International, most of the leadership of the Democrats) to devalue the word torture to mean everything, and nothing, are actually having an effect, here's what my very hard to read, four pages to a page, Oxford English Dictionary (1971) says on the subject:

"(noun) The infliction of excruciating pain...for the purpose of forcing an accused or suspected person to confess, or an unwilling witness to give evidence or information (first use was in 1551)

"(verb) To inflict severe pain or suffering upon...(first use 1588)

Now lets look at one of my loyal reader's list of Amnesty International's list of tortures in the modern Gulag, including Guantanamo Bay:

Abduction
Barbed wire, forced to walk barefoot on
Blindfolding
"Burking" hand over detainee's mouth/nose to prevent breathing
Cell extraction, brutal/punitive use of
Chemical/pepper spray, misuse of
Cigarette burns
Claustrophobia-inducing techniques, e.g. tied headfirst in sleeping bag, shut in lockers
Death threats
Dietary manipulation
Dogs used to threaten and intimidate
Dousing in cold water
Electric shocks, threats of electric shocks
Exposure to weather and temperature extremes, especially via air-conditioning
Flags, wrapped in Israeli or US flags during or prior to interrogation
Food and water deprivation
Forced shaving, i.e. of head, body or facial hair
Forcible injections, including with unidentified substances
Ground, forced to lie on bare ground while agents stand on back or back of legs
Hooding
Hostage-taking, i.e. individuals detained to force surrender of relatives
Humiliation, eg. forced crawling, forced to make animal noises, being urinated upon.
Immersion in water to induce perception of drowning
Incommunicado detention
Induced perception of suffocation or asphyxiation
Light deprivation
Loud music, noise, yelling
Mock execution
Photography and videoing as humiliation
Physical assault, eg punching, kicking, beatings with hands, hose, batons, guns, etc
Physical exercise to the point of exhaustion, e.g. "ups and downs", carrying rocks
Piling, i.e. detainee is sat on or jumped on by one or more people ("dog/pig pile")
Prolonged interrogations, eg. 20 hours
Racial and religious taunts, humiliation
Relatives, denial of access to, excessive censorship of communications with
Religious intolerance, eg disrespect for Koran, religious rituals
Secret detention
Secret transfer
Sensory deprivation
Sexual humiliation
Sexual assault
Shackles and handcuffs, excessive and cruel use of. Includes "short shackling"
Sleep adjustment
Sleep deprivation
Solitary confinement for prolonged periods, eg. months or more than a year
Stress positions, eg prolonged forced kneeling and standing
Stripping, nudity, excessive or humiliating use of
Strip searches, excessive or humiliating use of
Strobe lighting
Suspension, with use of handcuffs/shackles
Threat of rape
Threats of reprisals against relatives
Threat of transfer to third country to inspire fear of torture or death
Threat of transfer to Guantanamo
Threats of torture or ill-treatment
Twenty-four hour bright lighting
Withdrawal of "comfort items", including religious items
Withholding of information, e.g. not telling detainee where he is
Withholding of medication
Withholding of toilet facilities, leading to defecation and urination in clothing

To which I replied:

I couldn't figure out from the Amnesty International report (which I merely skimmed I admit) what were merely complaints unsubstantiated and probably lies and what was AI puffery and what was a serious charge. That was a fatal problem with the report. I do know that blindfolding, hooding, threats to return them home, use of flags, turning up and/or off the air conditioning, humilitation, Koran abuse, loud music (even Aguilera and rap), taking them out of their cell, incommunicado detention, too little light, photography, censorship of letters and limited letters, sleep deprivation, secret detention and transfer, taunting, shackles and handcuffs, strobe light abuse (I can't believe I just typed that), threats, too much light, withdrawal of the comfey chair, I mean, comfort items, not telling them where they are, limiting bathroom breaks and keeping them until the war ends are not torture, are not violations of international law and are just really silly complaints for illegal combatants who should be executed it there was justice in the World. Even if you took the assault and sexual assault and burns seriously, which I do not, there are only about 100,000 metaphorical miles more to go to get to the first step of the Nazis against the Jews in Birkenau.

To this I add:

Of the list only--

walking on barbed wire
chemical spray abuse
cigarette burns
electric shock
physical assault
sexual assault
various forms of painful shackling--

could be considered torture in the OED sense. And they didn't say they tied the guy down and put pepper spray or mace into his eyes to torture him, they were just a little too free with the spray for AI's tastes. I also chalk up the walking on barbed wire to a mistake, not intentional. I don't believe we sexually assault our prisoners. I also don't believe we burn them with cigarettes (you can't smoke in federal facilities). So the list is reduced to:

electric shock
physical assault
painful shackling.

What a pitiful attempt at real torture. These are mere stretching exercises for Gestapo and SD torturers. Indeed, the Soviet torturers would have been insulted to have been accused of using only these. They were pros.

I have a book on real torture, which I won't reproduce here, and if you read it and knew other history and the cruelty ingenious men have devised to hurt other men over the centuries, you would probably be thinking, like I am, what amazing wusses these lefty guys are to equate most of the list to torture. Taking away comfort items as torture. Can it get any more silly? What's next? Harsh language? He looked at me mean? He's being mean? These are the complaints of school children. The left should be ashamed of the damage they are doing to the discourse on a serious problem (but conspicuously absent in the English speaking world) with this dilution of the meaning of the term torture