Torturing Legality

It's hardly difficult to notice the disconnect between the Prez's flat statement this morning in Panama, "We do not torture," and Cheney's efforts to exempt the CIA from John McCain's antitorture amendment. It could easily be written off as rank hypocrisy (which would be so unlike this administration), but I think there's more to it.

Let's look at the whole quote, "Anything we do . . . to that end in this effort [to fight terrorism], any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture." Bush's logic is clear--torture is against the law. The U.S. doesn't break the law in its antiterrorism efforts, so anything it does can't be defined as torture. Whatever acts the U.S. performs in fighting terror are legal and by definition, therefore, can't be torture.

I've only got one question in all this. If Cheney gets his exemption and torture by the CIA is not explicitly banned, does that mean it's legal? And if it's legal, by the Prez's logic, is it still be torture?