Finally, some fact checking

We're finally beginning to see some decent news reporting from a few lonely souls. In today's NY Times we find this piece by Mark Mazzetti fact checking Bush:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 — In defending the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret network of prisons on Wednesday, President Bush said the detention system had used lawful interrogation techniques, was fully described to select members of Congress and led directly to the capture of a string of terrorists over the past four years.

A review of public documents and interviews with American officials raises questions about Mr. Bush’s claims on all three fronts.

I particularly liked it when Mazzetti took on Bush's claim that the torture practiced on these people had prevented terrorist attacks and led to arrests:

…Mr. Bush said it was Mr. Zubaydah who disclosed to C.I.A. interrogators that Mr. Mohammed was the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and often used the alias Mukhtar, sometimes spelled Muktar.

“This was a vital piece of intelligence that helped our intelligence community pursue K.S.M.,” Mr. Bush said, referring to the terror suspect by his initials.

The report of the Sept. 11 commission said that the C.I.A. knew of the moniker for Mr. Mohammed months before the capture of Mr. Zubaydah.

And, once he's stuck in the knife, he twists it a turn or two:

…Mr. Bush also said it was the interrogation of Mr. Zubaydah that identified Mr. bin al-Shibh as an accomplice in the Sept. 11 attacks.

American officials had identified Mr. bin al-Shibh’s role in the attacks months before Mr. Zubaydah’s capture. A December 2001 federal grand jury indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, said that Mr. Moussaoui had received money from Mr. bin al-Shibh and that Mr. bin al-Shibh had shared an apartment with Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the plot.

Of course, nobody in the government understands the difference between fact and fiction, something the C.I.A. had to prove one more time.

A C.I.A. spokesman said Thursday that the agency had vetted the president’s speech and stood by its accuracy.

That's why Mickey Mouse is going to tell us what really happened on 9/11. Clinton did it.