The Bush administration’s treatment of terror detainees faced renewed assault earlier this month. “The government does not torture people,” the president had just reiterated. “You know, we stick to US law and our international obligations,” he had said. Interrogation methods had been “fully disclosed to appropriate members of Congress”. John Rockefeller, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, voiced his exasperation. He was “tired of these games”, he said. “The reality is, the administration refused to disclose the programme to the full committee for five years and they have refused to turn over key legal documents since day one ... I find it unfathomable that the committee ...would be provided more information by The New York Times than by the Department of Justice.”