Waging war on terror abroad and on freedom at home - Sunday Times - Times Online: "Last week, for example, the president insisted that “we do not torture”. It was a bold statement. It is also patently untrue. Last week, for example, we discovered that the CIA operates several “black sites” for terror suspects in former Soviet camps in eastern Europe. Among the techniques authorised for the CIA to use against them is “water-boarding”, where inmates are plunged or drenched in water to the point of drowning. This is repeated until a confession is forced. According to a Pentagon commissioned report, this technique was used on one detainee in Guantanamo on 17 occasions in one month and was still legally not “torture”, according to Bush administration lawyers. Hence the president’s carefully parsed statement. His strained legal definition is as absurd as his predecessor Bill Clinton’s definition of what constituted “sexual relations” with Monica Lewinsky. And it is of infinitely graver moral import."