Marc Thiessen "Bitch-Slaps" Christiane Amanpour For Lying During CNN Interview

Christiane Amanpour, the Chief international correspondent of Cable News Network grew up in Tehran where her father was a shill for the Shah's government. Since that the overthrow of the of the Shah, Christiane, a Roman Catholic, has been making up for her father's support of the Shah by supporting Islamic Terrorism every chance she has.

Christiane cut her teeth on her her one-sided coverage of the conflict in Bosnia. Since then she has continued to support the Islamofacist cause every chance she can; be it her admiration for Yassir Arafat (a terrorist and baby killer) right down the line to a support of Iranian President Ahmadinejad:

There's no doubt that President Ahmadinejad of Iran is provocative and confrontational, and taking Iran's foreign policy, at least on a public way, in a much different direction than it has been in the past.On the other hand, it's also common practice right now by the U.S. and its allies to blame Iran, like the bogeyman, for everything going on in the Middle East. (CNN, June 15, 2007).

Ms Amanpour decided to have a debate about waterboarding on her CNN interview show. One of her guests was author Marc Thiessen author of the book Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack. When Amanpour challenged Thiessen about waterboarding being torture, Thiessen directly challenged her with evidence that she had misled her viewers about the CIA’s waterboarding techniques (See Video Below). To be honest he wiped the floor with her.

 A stunned Amanpour was left momentarily speechless as Thiessen pulled out a transcript from a 2008 CNN broadcast from the Khmer Rouge prison S-21, where Amanpour had stood before a picture of Khmer Rouge torturers drowning an innocent Cambodian in a vat of water, and declared that the CIA had done the same thing to terrorists in its custody.

Thiessen told Amanpour, “There have been so many so misstatements told about the enhanced interrogation techniques, comparing them to the Spanish Inquisition and the Khmer Rouge, and I have to tell you Christiane, you are one of the people who have spread these mistruths.”

An incredulous Amanpour replied, “Excuse me?”

Thiessen pulled out a transcript of her story from her visit to S-21, and said “Let me read to you what you said.”  He then quoted Amanpour’s report:

“I stared blankly at another of Van Nath’s paintings.  This time a prisoner is submerged in a life-size box full of water, handcuffed to the side so he cannot escape or raise his head to breathe.  His interrogators, arrayed around him, are demanding information.  I asked Van Nath whether he had heard this was once used on America’s terrorist suspected.  He nodded his head.  ‘It’s not right.”

Thiessen told Amanpour, “That is completely false.”  Amanpour asked, “That’s false?”  Thiessen told her, “We did not submerge people in a box of water.”  Amanpour replied, “Excuse me a second, that is called waterboarding.”  “No it’s not,” Thiessen replied.  Amanpour tried to turn to the other guest, left-wing author Philippe Sands, but Thiessen pressed his point:  “Christiane you are absolutely wrong.  14,000 people killed in S-21.  Seven survivors …” But Amanpour cut him off, “Excuse me, you are trying to obfuscate the debate.  That prison was full of images of water torture.”  Thiessen responded, “Which is nothing like what the CIA did.  Do you have any evidence …” Amanpour cut him again off to go Sands, after which Amanpour tried to change the subject.

But Thiessen pressed her: “I want to answer this, because it is very important.  What you said was not waterboarding but a barrel filled with water.  You have no evidence whatsoever that the CIA did what you said they did.” 

Amanpour insisted that there was no difference between what she had described and what the CIA did.  “Dipping people’s heads in water to simulate drowning.  Period.  End of story.”  But as Thiessen explains in his new book, Courting Disaster, the Khmer Rouge not “simulate drowning” at S-21 – they actually drowned their victims.  Only 7 of the 14,000 people who entered S-21 emerged alive.  

But of course that major difference is not important to Amanpour, who has a regular habit of replacing the truth with her fantasy.  Take a look at the two-part video below and watch Christiana get confronted by the truth.

Thiessen in his book writes, “It is important to set the record straight—not only to restore the good name of those who interrogated terrorists in our custody, but also to restore the good name of our country. One of the principal arguments made against enhanced interrogations is that they have harmed America’s moral standing in the world. In truth, what has harmed America’s moral standing in the world are the false comparisons made by those who declare that America has practiced the same techniques as the most reviled despots and dictators in human history—when in fact we have done nothing of the sort.” 

To be honest, I have not read the book, but I will be buying it today. After hearing Thiessen twice (the other time on the Ed Morrissey Show-see below), it sounds like a must read.