The WashPost and "torture"; better late than never?

Jason Linkins at HuffPost draws our attention to a WashPost article about an unfolding court drama in Cambodia where "a notorious genocidaire of the Khmer Rouge" acknowledged his role in the death of more than 15,000 people while overseeing a Khmer Rouge torture center during Cambodia's reign of terror during the 1970s.

Detailing the gruesome revelations, the Post reported that the man's victims "were tortured with electric shocks, waterboarding or beating to extract a confession, which would implicate new victims."

Note the explicit use of "torture" to describe the act of waterboarding. Writes Linkins:

It's a break from typical media traditions, obviously. See, when outfits like the WaPo typically talk about waterboarding, it's referred to as "a form of simulated drowning that U.S. officials had previously deemed a crime" or "harsh interrogation tactics" or an "interrogation tactic" or "harsh interrogation practices" or "a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill." But unless you are in possession of whatever gland produces honesty, like Dan Froomkin, you never, never, ever just come right out and say that waterboarding is torture.