I Agree With Dick Cheney.

Dick Cheney started busting out some hilarious obfuscation today, much the same type that Republicans claimed that they hated President Bill Clinton for doing. It apparently worked, as CNN proudly displays a headline on their site proclaiming that "Cheney says documents show interrogations prevented attacks."

Unfortunately, that's not what Dick Cheney said. It's just what he wanted to suggest. The quote from CNN:

The documents released Monday clearly demonstrated that the individuals subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda," Cheney said in a written statement. "This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks."

I wholeheartedly agree with him.

The clever guy didn't say that the documents demonstrated that it was the enhanced interrogations that provided the intelligence, only that the folks that interrogation techniques were used on provided the bulk of the intelligence.

The documents released don't say that torture was effective like Cheney had previously claimed a few months ago when you couldn't turn on a cable news network without hearing him or his daughter defending torture, but the media doesn't seem to be nearly as excited about him being wrong as they were about his initial bold claims. It's not until the THIRTEENTH paragraph of this New York Times article that Cheney's assertion is even mentioned.

It's that liberal media acting up again.

*UPDATE* According to a segment I just saw on CNN, Cheney's aides are unwilling to clarify the former Vice President's statements.

** Later Update ** Looks like good old Ben Smith over at The Politico fell for the same word-smithery that CNN did: