Historian Timothy Naftali wrote: “To protect [al Qaeda operations chief Abu] Zubaydah’s CIA interrogators from future prosecution on U.S. torture laws, the Justice Department issued an ‘interrogation’ opinion on August 1, 2002. The opinion defined torture as narrowly as possible–as acts that caused pain ‘associated with a sufficiently serious physical condition or injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of bodily function’–and then made it clear that even if U.S. interrogators committed that much pain, they would be immune from prosecution by claiming self-defense on behalf of the United States.”
– Julian E. Zelizer, ed., The Presidency of George W. Bush, Page 74