Reply #158: No, they do not.

[merh]

The memos were written to justify the crimes, to explain them away. The DOJ doesn't have that power and nothing in those opinions is based in the law.

"near occasion of death" - what a bunch of crap - the legal definitions do not limit the acts to that.

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(1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;
(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from—
(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
(C) the threat of imminent death; or
(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality; and
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“Any intentionally inflicted cruel or inhumane or degrading treatment, unauthorized by a court of law, perpetrated for the punishment of the victim, to extract statements from the victim, or to gratify the perpetrator.”

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The CIA agents have been trained that our constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and that torture is illegal. They know that -

They were predisposed to commit the crime and were not entrapped simply because the DOJ gave them memos saying they could abuse. They just wanted permission to do the crimes, Bybee and Yo gave them the permission but they had no right to do that.

It is up to a court to decide if the defense of entrapment is available to the accused and up to the jury to buy that defense and acquit.