Senior White House officials, in consultation with President Bill Clinton, set America's Al Qaeda policy from 1993 to 2001. They told the CIA what to do, and decided how it should pursue, capture and detain terrorists. They approved renditions to Egypt and elsewhere. Having failed to find a legal means to keep all the detainees in American custody, they preferred to let other countries do our dirty work. I know this because, as head of the CIA's bin Laden desk, I started the Qaeda detainee/rendition program and ran it for 40 months. And in my 22 years at the agency I never a saw a set of operations that was more closely scrutinized by the director of central intelligence, the National Security Council and the Congressional intelligence committees. Nor did I ever see one that was more blessed (plagued?) by the expert guidance of lawyers. Michael Scheuer says the White House micromanaged his renditions. | 
