Justice Department Memo on Torture

August 1, 2002: A Justice Department memo asserts that Bush's wartime powers supersede international anti-torture laws and treaties, defines torture as only that which is "equivalent in intensity to teh pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failur, impairment of bodily function, or even death."

The public only became aware of this memo on June 8, 2004.

Sources:

Mother Jones Magazine, Lie by Lie, How Our Leaders Used Fear and Falsehood to Dupe us Into a Mideast Quagmire: A Timeline.