CIA refused to "just follow(ing) orders."

This is pretty much what Bush said, that the program cannot continue without the legislation, but I find myself flashing on the failed Nuremburg "just following orders" defense.

The Bush administration had to empty its secret prisons and transfer terror suspects to the military-run detention centre at Guantánamo this month in part because CIA interrogators had refused to carry out further interrogations and run the secret facilities, according to former CIA officials and people close to the programme.

The former officials said the CIA interrogators’ refusal was a factor in forcing the Bush administration to act earlier than it might have wished.