More back-and-forth about torture and whether or not the Geneva Convention ought to apply to people suspected of terrorism (who do they think they are, Nazis?) prompted a little more research on my part, which is how I found the following excerpt from an AP report from June 17th 2005 entitled "Top U.S. attorney defends Guantanamo camp":
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Gonzales has been criticized for approving an August 2002 memo while he was White House counsel that said laws prohibiting torture do "not apply to the president's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants." The document also said "injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions" must occur for an incident to qualify as torture.
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If you needed a clearer connection between the White House and all of the prisoner abuses which occured in the grey zone between the Geneva Convention and "death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions," there you are.

Never mind that you can be picked up anywhere in the world and sent to Guantanamo without charges, often for years at a time. Punishment is for convicts. Torture is for S&M enthusiasts.

Also, I suppose I should link to my previous discussion of the efficacy of torture as well.