O'Reilly falsely equates waterboarding of detainees, training for U.S. military

Written by Adam Shah

Published

On January 25, Bill O'Reilly falsely equated the waterboarding of detainees by U.S. interrogators with the training U.S. soldiers undergo. In fact, officials familiar with both the techniques used in harsh interrogations and those used in military training programs have said that such a comparison is false; those who undergo certain interrogation techniques in such training programs are aware that there are safeguards and know they can stop the training immediately if necessary.

O'Reilly: "[S]ome American special forces candidates were waterboarded in training with no permanent damage"

From the January 25 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: “Back of the Book” segment tonight: “Reality Check” where we clear things up so that even I can understand them. Check one: Very divisive issue in America is coerced interrogation of captured terrorist suspects. Generally speaking, liberals oppose it, conservatives support it. The hot button is waterboardings; and once again, it was debated by former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen, author of the book, Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama is Inviting the Next Attack, and CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

[begin video clip]

AMANPOUR Do you support torture? I know you do not call --

THIESSEN: It's not torture.

AMANPOUR: I know you don't call it torture --

THIESSEN: It isn't torture.

AMANPOUR: -- but the extreme pain, the enhanced --

THIESSEN: There's no extreme pain.

AMANPOUR: -- interrogation techniques --

THIESSEN: There is no -- the techniques -- there have been so many misstatements told about the enhanced interrogation techniques, comparing them to the Spanish Inquisition to the Khmer Rouge. And I have to tell you, Christiane, you're one of the people who have spread these mistruths. You --

AMANPOUR: Excuse me?

[end video clip]

O'REILLY: Hmm. Now Mr. Thiessen went on to point out some American special forces candidates were waterboarded in training with no permanent damage. However, the debate will never end, and the president has outlawed all waterboarding by American authorities.

FACT: Bush DOJ, Senate committee agree interrogations, training are not comparable

Bush DOJ memo: Individuals undergoing military's SERE training are “obviously in a very different situation from detainees undergoing interrogation.” In a May 30, 2005, Office of Legal Counsel memo, Steven G. Bradbury, the Bush administration's principal deputy assistant attorney general at the time, wrote that individuals undergoing the military's Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training are “obviously in a very different situation from detainees undergoing interrogation; SERE trainees know it is part of a training program, not a real-life interrogation regime, they presumably know it will last only a short time, and they presumably have assurances that they will not be significantly harmed by the training.”

Senate Armed Services Committee: “There are fundamental differences between a SERE school exercise and a real world interrogation.” From an April 22, 2009, Senate Armed Services Committee report:

(U) SERE school techniques are designed to simulate abusive tactics used by our enemies. There are fundamental differences between a SERE school exercise and a real world interrogation. At SERE school, students are subject to an extensive medical and psychological pre-screening prior to being subjected to physical and psychological pressures. The schools impose strict limits on the frequency, duration, and/or intensity of certain techniques. Psychologists are present throughout SERE training to intervene should the need arise and to help students cope with associated stress. And SERE school is voluntary; students are even given a special phrase they can use to immediately stop the techniques from being used against them.

Factor has frequently downplayed waterboarding, other techniques

On Factor, Fox's Angle said: “We've done it to thousands of our own people.” On the April 20, 2009, edition of The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle stated: "[T]he odd thing ... is that President Obama has decided that waterboarding, which we have done, by the way, to thousands of our own people in the military -- pilots and Special Forces are often trained by being waterboarded. We've done it to thousands of our own people. He has decided it is too harsh to use on terrorists."

O'Reilly downplayed torture allegations at Guantánamo. Before and after a trip to Guantánamo Bay, O'Reilly mocked and downplayed concerns about torture allegation.

O'Reilly repeatedly jokes about waterboarding. O'Reilly has joked about waterboarding George Soros, Alan Colmes, Fox News contributor Ellis Hennican, and Janeane Garofalo.