Well, in that case, I feel a whole lot better....

The maladministration to their buddies in the U.K.: "Sorry, we lied to you and made you look foolish.... Dem's da breaks."

Britain had previously said that it hadn't been used by the U.S. in the "special rendition" (read: "outsourcing torture") program:

The British government had previously insisted it was not aware of any British territory being used to transfer terrorism suspects outside normal extradition procedures since U.S. President George W. Bush took office in 2001.

But.... Turns out they said this because the U.S. had assured them it was true. "Fooled ya! Ha-ha!" The maladministration lied, and is now apologising for it:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it had expressed regret to close ally Britain over inaccurate information Washington gave about U.S. planes carrying terrorism suspects that refueled on a British island.

"We came up with fresh information that in short order we shared with the British government," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "We regret that there was an error in providing initially that inaccurate information to a good friend and ally," he told reporters.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Wednesday to express U.S. regret over the error, he told reporters.

Miliband told Britain's parliament earlier on Thursday that contrary to earlier U.S. assurances, two planes used for "rendition flights" in 2002 had refueled at a U.S. base on the British Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.

"Will you still love me in the morning?"


The best part of this little fluff-up between friends was this admission by CIA Director Michael Hayden:

Hayden said neither of the individuals on board the two U.S. flights was part of the CIA's "high-value terrorist interrogation program."

Oh. Well, that makes it all better. We were 'renditioning' "low-value" schmucks through British territory to be tortured for the information needed to Save The World From Terra-ism ... oh ... waidaminnit....