Surf's Up! Get Your Waterboards.

Was that title too cynical? Too facetious? Maybe, but I would like to note that, horrible though the story of the fellow who was waterboarded 183 after he'd spilled his guts, we have no basis for knowing if this was a really unusual occurrence (as I suspect), or something that was done frequently. This is headlining by exception, in which the "man bites dog" story grabs the headline.

I heard a radio interview today with Philip Zelikow. Those of you who have read my review of The Commission will know who Zelikow is. Zelikow asserts that there were those who spoke out against "harsh interrogation," and that he thought President Bush wanted to hear these contrarian opinions. The last assertion may be cast into some doubt when Zelikow notes that a memo he distributed while he was working at the State Department resulted in an order to gather up all of the copies and destroy them.

This is the way this kind of story grows legs. Every day there is a new revelation. The more investigations there are, the more sources for new revelations. It can become a self-sustaining cycle, and the signal to noise ratio can get into bad shape.