These are the crazy liberals who sided with the terrorists against the president:

Mr. Zelikow, who served as staff director for the national commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks, joined the State Department in early 2005 with strong views on the detention issue, other officials said. Early on, he began to push the idea that high-level C.I.A. captives held in connection with the 9/11 attacks should be brought to justice, these officials said.

Mr. England took over as Mr. Rumsfeld's acting deputy in April 2005 while continuing to serve as secretary of the Navy. (He was confirmed as deputy secretary in April 2006.) He, too, had experience with the detainee issue, having spent months working to overhaul what many military officers saw as a flawed screening process for prisoners at Guantánamo.

Condoleezza Rice supported the recommendations. We know from Bob Woodward's book that Rumsfeld didn't communicate well with Rice. With Cheney guarding his back, Rumsfeld stonewalled any discussion of policy change. Apart from his anger that a subordinate would question the administration's policy, Rumsfeld couldn't stomach the thought of a subordinate seeking input from anyone but Rumsfeld.

Mr. Rumsfeld was angered that his new deputy, Mr. England, had worked on the memorandum with officials outside the Pentagon without his authorization. "England's wings got clipped after that," one Defense Department aide said.