"We cannot limit ourselves solely to the `secret prisons' issue," said Dick Marty, the Swiss politician who has headed the main political investigation into the incidents under the auspices of the 46-member Council of Europe, covering countries from east and west Europe, including Russia.

He said that further investigation needed to look into "illegal detention, even of a short duration" of US prisoners on European soil, such as stops to refuel aircraft.

Do you realize how the Swiss investigator is getting ready to argue that keeping the detainees in the airplanes while refueling amounts to illegal detention, that is, kidnapping?

This is going to get huge, because the prisons may not exist, but the rendition program and the refueling are well documented.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman