So, now that we're starting to see studies that link sleep deprivation to brain damage

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

show up (Study News Release), can it now be argued in court that 'enhanced interrogation' that included sleep deprivation/long term wakefulness was torture, given that it can cause irreversible damage to a person's brain? Sleep deprivation was among the favorite 'acceptable' methods used by the CIA on prisoners, and although, as that article notes, it was included in the 2009 ban on 'harsh interrogation methods' the President instituted, it was also being considered for a possible reinstatement of use. (And, I'm guessing that Presidential 'ban' was via executive order, in which case the next pro-torture President that comes along can simply rescind the ban... Feel free to correct me if it actually was legislative.)

(From the second link) One came from former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, who expressed disbelief that the administration was prepared to expose methods it might later decide it needed.

"Are you telling me that under all conditions of threat, you will never interfere with the sleep cycle of a detainee?" Hayden asked a top White House official, according to sources familiar with the exchange.

From the beginning, sleep deprivation had been one of the most important elements in the CIA's interrogation program, used to help break dozens of suspected terrorists, far more than the most violent approaches. And it is among the methods the agency fought hardest to keep.

If the US wants to regain any sense of moral authority in the world, we must eschew torture in all forms, and prosecute our own war criminals, not simply continue to ignore them in the name of political expediency.