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Friday, January 16, 2009 12:00 AM

A real discussion on TV regarding U.S. policy towards Israel

Perhaps it takes a highly-telegenic, American-born Jordanian monarch for American television networks to air a real debate on the one-sided U.S. support for Israel.

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  • Friday, January 16, 2009 07:25 AM

    Lichtblau on Holder on torture in today's NY Times

    Glenn,

    It is worth noting the wording in Lichtblau's article today, especially since you caught his error in the report yesterday. Read this sentence carefully:

    "Mr. Holder said the practice of waterboarding terrorism suspects, used by the Central Intelligence Agency on three prisoners after the Sept. 11 attacks, represented torture." (A16)

    What does "represented torture" mean? Holder didn't say "represented." I do not have Holder's testimony in front of me, but I watched it yesterday and he was answering a question, "Is waterboarding torture?" and he said, if I recall prescisely, after mentioning that we have prosecuted people for war crimes for waterboarding in the past, "Yes, it is." I know he never said, "Waterboarding represents torture." That would have been, forgive me, a tortuous sentence. Now, that difference may seem minor, but the ongoing reluctance of reporters to call torture, torture, even when judges are throwing out cases because the evidence was gathered through torture, is amazing.

    These little things can slip by. I thought it worth noting.

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