Changes

== Controversy ==

== Controversy ==

Opponents of the US use of the technique call it "torture" and want official definitions of [[torture]] changed so as to outlaw the technique.<ref>http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/06/usdom13130.htm</ref> Top US officials say the technique is not "torture" and rebuffed attempts to reclassify or ban it.

Opponents of the US use of the technique call it "torture" and want official definitions of [[torture]] changed so as to outlaw the technique.<ref>http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/06/usdom13130.htm</ref> According to Chapter 18, section 2340 of the United States Legal Code, torture is defined as "an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering". The [[United Nations]] Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman

or Degrading Treatment or Punishment classifies torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity." Top US officials say the technique is not "torture" and rebuffed attempts to reclassify or ban it.

== References ==

== References ==