266 Becomes Fewer than 15

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story?  According to Investor’s Business Daily:

Media reports that CIA agents had waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah 266 times stirred an already angry nest of political opponents who want to prosecute Bush officials for their tactics in the war on terrorism.

As has been said, a lie will make it halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on. Deceptive reporting operates at the same speed.

The truth, which is just now reaching for its boots, is that Mohammed and Zubaydah were not waterboarded a total of 266 times (183 alleged waterboardings in one month for Mohammed, the 9/11 architect, 83 for Zubaydah, an Osama bin Laden insider). They were waterboarded fewer than 15 times in all, according to the Red Cross, which has spoken to the men.

The larger numbers the media ran with to shock the public were not individual waterboarding sessions, but the number of times water was poured on them, with each pour lasting only seconds.

The interrogators who performed the waterboarding process to pry lifesaving information out of Mohammed, Zubaydah and one other detainee were not mindless thugs under command of a malevolent regime in Washington, but CIA officers working under strict guidelines.

Limited to no more than five sessions a month, they would have had to waterboard Mohammed for more than three years to reach the alleged 183 sessions. While not impossible, it’s unlikely.

Fewer than 15 times and it saved lives?  Where’s the problem and why hasn’t this headline made it into the news (or can we not trust the Red Cross?).  As they say… smear on page one, correction on page 29.

Politics over national security?  Absolutely!

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