"In the same memos, the Justice Department did note that forced sleep deprivation, when used in conjunction with other techniques, had been called torture in the past, both by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (in a lawsuit about human-rights violations in the Philippines) and the U.N., on multiple occasions. Nonetheless, the Justice Department memos concluded that the use of prolonged [week long] sleep deprivation "cannot be expected to cause 'severe mental pain or suffering,' " as defined by U.S. criminal law."

(The Justice Department memo writers concluded, somehow, that the maximum allowable period of sleep deprivation would be 264 hours, though no detainee was deprived of sleep for more than 180 hours, or 7½ days.)