Lawyers narrowed the definition of torture to legalize cruel interrogation.

Evidence

Lawyers in the Departments of Justice and Defense as well as at the Pentagon prepared documents that essentially legalized torturous practices. They further declared that the president, as commander in chief, was not bound by federal or international laws in the effort to protect the nation. In his memo, widely regarded as outrageous, Jay S. Bybee of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department defined torture in the narrowest terms as “inflicting intense pain or suffering of that kind that is equivalent to the pain that would be associated with serious injury so severe that death, organ failure, or permanent damage resulting in a loss of significant bodily functions will likely result” (Novkov, 2013). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2396

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault’s interest in how institutionalized authority legitimizes harm against out-groups — the torture memos exemplify Cooper-style rationalization operating at the level of state policy.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2396