It looks obvious

This statement of Giuliani is simply to good to be ignored:

Asked whether waterboarding constituted torture, he replied:

    It depends on how it’s done. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it.

It is obvious that Giuliani statement was more complex than the criticism that followed. One might argue that when stating that if waterboarding is done by professional interrogator, under supervision is different than if it is done by some jail gourd. In addition a situation of a person that holding information about terror attack that might happening right now might require use of measures that should not be permitted in normal situation.

However what make Giuliani wrong is the fact that, for the argument sake, even if some conditions make certain methods permissible doesn’t change the fact that they are torture. The attempt to call something in different name doesn’t change its nature. It only provides a false illusion that the permission isn’t needed anymore.