MATTHEW SCHOFIELD AT KNIGHT-RIDDER reports that a lawyer for the State Department told the U.N. Committee Against Torture that the U.S. military will include a prohibition against waterboarding in its new interrogation manual.

And the standard disclaimer:

John B. Bellinger III said banning water-boarding wasn't an admission that American interrogators had used the technique on detainees during the war on terrorism.

This would not have happened but for the human rights groups and liberal bloggers and enlightened conservative bloggers (I'm talking about you, Andrew Sullivan) who kept this issue front and center. This is what democracy is about. This is how we keep our freedom and our civil liberties and our human rights. By using our freedom. By exercising our civil liberties and demanding our human rights, and insisting that human rights are for everyone, not just rich white Americans.

I'm proud of us.