The Justice Department and the UN Convention Against Torture

3.  John Yoo held that UN Convention against Torture did not adequately define many of terms used to describe torture. Yoo cited, for example, the term severe was explained as well as the reference to physical pain or suffering. Yoo position was the UN document was “vague, ambiguous, and had not been interpreted before”. In August of 2002 the Justice Department issued a memo that would redefine the meaning of torture and relegate it to narrow parameters. The result of the memo would sanctions the use of extreme interrogation techniques. Many of the individuals that viewed this memo believed that such a gross interpretation should never have come to the public forefront much less US policy. Many critics cited the many of the condemned torture activities committed by Saddam Hussain would be sanctioned under the Yoo memo.  

http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/y3gctpw.htm

http://www.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m3640104_IHL_SummaryGenevaConv.pdf