"Sanctioning Lawlessness:... Taking a page from John Yoo, the author of the Justice Department's original torture memo, Congress has tortured language in order to clear room for the CIA to torture suspects. Just as Yoo interpreted the criminal torture ban narrowly so as to permit threats of death and infliction of any physical pain short of that associated with organ failure or death, so the new law makes it a crime to inflict "serious physical pain" on detainees, but defines "serious physical pain" as requiring both bodily injury and "extreme" physical pain, which sounds even more harsh than the "severe" physical pain that constitutes torture. McCain has trumpeted this law as a compromise--but the only thing it compromises is our commitment to the fundamental dignity of all human beings."