:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Friday 18 March 2005 ::

Andrew Sullivan gets it wrong about torture. Again.

He flagrantly states that there have been 26 criminal homicides committed in US custody. He relies on the New York Times to support his case. (Note: bugmenot.com if you have to log in, but I did not have to. Sometimes I do, but. Whatever.)

He is wrong. The NYT article reports 18 criminal homicides only.

To be fair to Sullivan, the NYT article is an almost impenetrable load of shite put together in as elliptical a fashion as possible so as to pad out what is basically yet another ACLU press release.

That accounts for the confusion. In one section we read about 18 criminal homicides. In another we read 24. I will take the lower figure every time since I know the NYT is full of shit and will spin this stuff as bad as it can. Deliberately. I mean it. Read that article and try to make head or tail of it as written. It has to be ripped apart and put back together again to make sense and to disclose real information.

Pathetic dissembling.

The real stats are as follows:
50000 detainees
18 criminal homicides
8 suspected criminal homicides - maybe maybe not
11 justified homicides
28 accidental deaths/natural causes
5 unknown causes of death

Even if you say the unknown and suspected stuff is criminal homicide it is still less than justifiable and accidental/natural deaths.

The NYT headline hedges its bets.

Sullivan does not hedge his.

Cos he is jerk about this issue.

And no it is not the common conservative response to decry torture and say it all happened one night in Abu Ghraib.

The true conservative position is that real torture by US troops is rare as hen's teeth and is investigated and not to be confused with humiliation. Which is not torture.

Why do I get so exercised about Sullivan? Cos he should be better than this.
:: WB 11:59 pm [link+] ::