Not as wet as previously reported

It turns out that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was not waterboarded 183 times in one month by CIA interrogators, as the liberal MSM widely reported. Instead, according to Joseph Abrams of Fox News, 183 represents the number of times water was poured onto Mohammed’s face — not the number of times the CIA applied the simulated-drowning technique on him. Abrams cites a 2007 Red Cross report which states that the terror mastermind was subjected to a total of “five sessions of ill-treatment.”

Unfortunately, readers of the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc. now have a vastly distorted picture of what the CIA did to KSM. However, I doubt that the public as a whole much cares how many times, or in what manner, we doused this killer in order to cause him to tell us what he knew.

Still there is merit to Abe Greenwald’s take on the liberal myth-making surrounding this issue:

George W. Bush’s critics spent eight years feverishly accusing the administration of crimes. They had it easy because there was no serious burden of proof. But the prospect of an actual investigation means they can no longer play fast and loose with the facts. Convicting a party of federal crimes isn’t like making a paranoid “documentary” or writing a best-selling hit job. The charges have to jibe with reality, for a change.

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