Rumsfeld and the Dictionary
"'There is no wiggle room in the president's mind or my mind about torture,' he said.
'That is not something that's permitted under the Geneva Convention or the laws of the United States.
'That is not to say that somebody else couldn't characterise something in a way that would fit what I described,' he added.
He noted that some have described the indefinite detention of suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as a form of mental torture.
'Therefore, that word is used by some people in a way that is fair from their standpoint, but doesn't fit a dictionary definition of the word that one would normally accept,' Mr Rumsfeld said. "
from the OED:
TORTURE
1. The infliction of severe bodily pain, as punishment or a means of persuasion; spec. judicial torture, inflicted by a judicial or quasi-judicial authority, for the purpose of forcing an accused or suspected person to confess, or an unwilling witness to give evidence or information; a form of this (often in pl.). to put to (the) torture, to inflict torture upon, to torture.
1551 Acts Privy Counc. (1891) III. 407 Assisting to the sayd Commissioners for the putting the prisoners+to suche tortours as they shall think expedient. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 131 You did deuise Strange Tortures for Offendors. 1608 D. Price Chr. Warre 21 To punish the bad, and to prouide some sharpe and fearful tortors for them. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. iv. 10 We put the Captain and Pilot to torture, who instantly confessed. 1708 Act 7 Anne c. 21 §5 After [1 July 1709] no Person accused of any Capital Offence or other Crime in Scotland, shall suffer, or be subject or liable to any Torture. 1769 Blackstone Comm. (1830) IV. xxv. 326 They erected a rack for torture. 1838 Thirlwall Greece III. xxv. 393 Pisander moved that the persons+should be put to the torture, that all their accomplices might be known. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. (1871) I. 16 According to law, torture+could not+be inflicted on an English subject. 1882 Gardiner Hist. Eng. (1884) VI. lxv. 359 note 2 Torture had been allowed [in England] by custom as inflicted by the prerogative, but not by law.+ Torture was inflicted as late as 1640 by prerogative.
2. Severe or excruciating pain or suffering (of body or mind); anguish, agony, torment; the infliction of such.
c1540 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden) I. 269 Doe you preferre the horrible tortures of warre beefore tranquillitee? 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1287 And that deepe torture may be cal'd a Hell, When more is felt than one hath power to tell. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 185 Pain and torture of the intestines. 1659 H. More Immort. Soul ii. x. §6. 220 Who would bear the tortures of Fears and Jealousies, if he could avoid it? 1734 Bp. Petre Let. in E. H. Burton Life Challoner (1909) I. 93 He wasted away by degrees under the torture of the Strangury. 1744 M. Bishop Life & Adv. 52 They were in such great Torture, wishing they had never come to Sea. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian ii, He determined to relieve himself from the tortures of suspense. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 353 As in one or other stage Of a torture writhe they.