Secrets of Torture Revealed

I've earlier surmised that Europe forced the Bush Adminstration's hand to get the secret prisons off of their territory. Now the Financial Times reports it was actually Bush's own CIA that refused to take the fall for this lawbreaking:

The Bush administration had to empty its secret prisons and transfer terror suspects to the military-run detention centre at Guantánamo this month in part because CIA interrogators had refused to carry out further interrogations and run the secret facilities, according to former CIA officials and people close to the programme.

The former officials said the CIA interrogators’ refusal was a factor in forcing the Bush administration to act earlier than it might have wished [...]

But the former CIA officials said Mr Bush’s hand was forced because interrogators had refused to continue their work until the legal situation was clarified because they were concerned they could be prosecuted for using illegal techniques. One intelligence source also said the CIA had refused to keep the secret prisons going.

Senior officials and Mr Bush himself have come close to admitting this by saying CIA interrogators sought legal clarity. But no official has confirmed on the record how and when the secret programme actually came to an end.

John Negroponte, director of national intelligence, who was interviewed by Fox News on Sunday, said in response to a question of whether CIA interrogators had refused to work: “I think the way I would answer you in regard to that question is that there’s been precious little activity of that kind for a number of months now, and certainly since the Supreme Court decision.”

The CIA has a history being made the fall guy, particularly with regard to the prewar intelligence on Iraq. I think they saw the wind blowing, and knew they'd be accused of being "rogue agents" who would be put away for these crimes that were clearly authorized from up top. Now, the CIA has been rendering detainees since the Clinton Administration, so I don't have a lot of sympathy for them. But it's certainly interesting to see that they've had enough and were not going to be stuck with the check by the "torture and ditch" Bush Administration.

Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee, receiving the Bushie torture legislation after it easily passed the Intelligence Committee (before it became a cause celebre), engaged in the rankest of maneuvers to get it passed:

The House Judiciary Committee just reversed itself, calling a re-vote and passing a controversial detainee treatment bill that has White House backing, according to House sources.

Earlier today, the panel had voted down the measure, 18-17, with three members not voting. The re-vote swung the tally to 20-18 in favor of the bill.

Update: WSJ's Washington Wire has more details (and a better vote tally -- we'd originally reported 17-20). "The amendment might have passed had two Democrats not missed the vote; the two were at a news conference on the Medicare drug benefit."

That was a scheduled conference AFTER THE VOTE WAS ALREADY MADE. You can see this happen like it was out of a sitcom: the Republicans mull around, the two Democrats leave the room, and as soon as the door is shut, they yell "OK, REVOTE!"

This is the kind of garbage that causes folks to riot in countries that don't have American Idol.