Waterboarding isn’t torture, Ted Cruz assures us, because the “generally recognized definition” of torture is “excruciating pain that is equivalent to losing organs and systems.” And when it comes to a president’s power to approve interrogation methods for suspected terrorists, Cruz said during a Feb. 6 Republican presidential debate, “the commander-in-chief has inherent constitutional authority to keep this country safe.” If that sounds familiar, it should. In August 2002, Justice Department attorney John Yoo, a former UC Berkeley law professor, advised President George W. Bush that waterboarding did not meet the legal definition of torture, which he described as the deliberate infliction of the level of pain suffered during “organ
