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Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama is Inviting the Next Attack

Marc Thiessen

New Yorker Fact-Checks Ex-Bush Speechwriter's Torture Claims

Justin Elliott | March 22, 2010, 8:31AM

Marc Thiessen

The public profile of Marc Thiessen, former chief speechwriter for Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush and current terrorism pundit, soared this year following the publication of his book Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack, which was blurbed by such conservative luminaries as Dick Cheney.

But now the New Yorker's Jane Mayer has published a scathing review of the book that challenges not only Thiessen's defense of "brutal interrogations" but also some of his basic factual claims.

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Topics: Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama is Inviting the Next Attack, Jane Mayer, Marc Thiessen, Torture

Marc Thiessen

Thiessen Mourns Loss Of CIA Torture Program -- O'Donnell Having None Of It (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | February 12, 2010, 9:51AM

On MSNBC this morning, former Rumsfeld and Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen went after President Obama for barring torture by the CIA in his first week in office, only to be rebuffed by an animated Lawrence O'Donnell on the Bush Administration's terrorism record.

"Barack Obama has eliminated the CIA's interrogation program, which is the single most successful and importance intelligence program we have in the war on terror and possibly in the history of the CIA," Thiessen said.

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Topics: Bush Administration, CIA, Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama is Inviting the Next Attack, Lawrence O'Donnell, Marc Thiessen, Obama Administration, Torture