The Wages of Sin

As you know, Condi Rice has been trotting all over Europe telling anyone who will listen how many lives we have saved by torturing suspects -- even though, of course, we're not torturing them. Well, when I read the following piece in this morning's NY Times, it occurred to me to ask how many lives we've lost by listening to the false information we get when we have these people tortured. After all, we're in a war because of it.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 - The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government officials.

The officials said the captive, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, provided his most specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January 2002, in a process known as rendition.

The new disclosure provides the first public evidence that bad intelligence on Iraq may have resulted partly from the administration's heavy reliance on third countries to carry out interrogations of Qaeda members and others detained as part of American counterterrorism efforts.