That's some really twisted mental gymnastics there. Torture is bad, because it's torture. It doesn't matter if you're a criminal or a human-monkey. How can they get away with it for so long? At least they didn't say torture is legal "because he's not a white guy", but their logic here is not that far off from that.
They are also getting away with it because the torture isn't of the "strap electrodes to his genitals" variety, which most people would immediately reject. Stuff like "loud music," "putting a holy book in a toilet," or "make him think he's drowning," don't evoke the same sort of immediate reaction. If the administration were openly performing at "Inquisition" levels of torture, there would be massive public outcry.
That is because you understand what waterboarding is. The general public, at least at the time, seemed to lack a proper appreciation for what it really meant.
I think parent, grandparent, and possibly great-grandparent share that view. The point was that back when we were having these discussions this was a lot less obvious to a lot of people. Which, to a certain extent, the video you linked demonstrates - Mancow hardly would have volunteered to undergo it if he didn't underestimate its awfulness (and he said it changed his views on the subject).
On the other hand they openly talked about extreme sleep deprivation (a few hours a week for months on end) and "walling", which is where you throw someone into a wall over and over.
Actually the Spanish Inquisition used similar methods, including waterboarding [1]. Certainly some of the US prisoners have been tortured to death [2].
