Thiessen Appears On 'Morning Joe', Is Still Demonstrably Wrong About Everything

Here's your daily reminder that Marc Thiessen is basically wrong about everything and has a near-erotic attachment to the thought of people getting tortured. This morning, Thiessen went on "Morning Joe" where, freed from having to talk to Lawrence O'Donnell, he just straight-up demonstrated a lack of understanding of current events.

Spencer Ackerman has a succinct summary of the blow-by-blow in the Washington Independent:

His first point is that President Obama is endangering the country because the Pakistanis aren't getting intelligence from captured Taliban deputy commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. What he doesn't mention is that intelligence from Baradar, reportedly, directly led to the capture of Mulvi Kabir, one of the ten most wanted Taliban leaders. This was reported yesterday and Thiessen just ignores it.

Then he avers that Obama's rejection of torture has cost U.S. interrogators "any tools at our disposal" to "compel" information out of terrorist captures. Except that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be bomber of Northwest Flight 253, is cooperating with his interrogators after they used pressure from his family to compel that cooperation. Also, the elite interrogators of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group will surely be surprised to hear they have no available tools for interrogating a resistant detainee. Then he says that torture stopped an attempted attack on the Los Angeles library tower, a misstatement that has been so thoroughly debunked it raises questions about Thiessen's honesty.

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I've little else to add to this, other than to say that the whole set-up to this segment is just so insulting to viewers that it's difficult to stomach. Scarborough references Thiessen's battle with O'Donnell as a ratings-garnering "trainwreck" that he "loves," and sets up this segment as some stupid, entirely trivial battle, complete with boxing bells. I share Ackerman's irritation with the way Scarborough belittlingly refers to Ali Soufan as "a guy who writes an awful lot." Thiessen is a guy who writes an awful lot. By contrast, Ali Soufan has had hands-on experience keeping America safe. The fact that "Morning Joe" gets all of this backwards, privileging the trivial over the serious, is just a miserable thing to watch.

What an effing joke. Even putting aside any critical concerns over Thiessen's scholarship or accuracy, it's a conversation about terrorism and national security. It's sort of hard to accept that it's a matter of serious import when the news treats it as if it were "The Marriage Ref."

RELATED:
Marc Thiessen Truly Has No Idea What He's Talking About on Interrogation [The Washington Independent]

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Comments

[LV711]

12:10 PM on 02/27/2010

Morning "I-don't-have-a-clue" Joe put this ignoramous (is there such a word?) on after Lawrence O'Donnell came on and CLOWNED he and this fool Thissen. Now everybody knows why Joe the Mouth was unsuccessful as an attorney -- his brain is incapable of interpreting facts.

[thinking4]

01:51 AM on 02/23/2010

Thiessen's brain has the quality of burnt toast. I can't watch Morning Wheeze as Joe has the brain capability of my 15 year old, but I watched the clip provided. Thiessen's waving of a document as the sole source of his screed against, oh, anything that the Obama administration does with terrorists is at best disingenuous and a worst simple minded. The Safani representative tied to explain and was not even allowed to rebutt the last of Thiessen's claims against Safani. Why is anyone other than Faux News allowing this man airtime? He is such a intellectual hack he would defend anything the Bush WH did based on one piece of paper. He serves as a reminder for all parents to make sure that your children get a well rounded education, so they can think for themselves.

[aussiegirl1973]

05:03 AM on 02/23/2010

200 people killed in Bali, not 20.

200, the majority of them Australians.

[Acleacius]

11:54 PM on 02/22/2010

It's hard to believe this guy is allowed be a host on a show, much less it be his show. no wonder people are confused when shows let people like this run off at the mouth to promote war crimes.

[The Cause Endures]

04:26 PM on 02/22/2010

Watching Morning Circle Jerk is not worth any decent person's time unless Ackerman or Stein are on there tellin' it like it is.

[weneedaLEADER]

03:27 PM on 02/22/2010

Morning Joe has been unwatchable for months now. He really needs to be on Fox as he is constantly talking out of both sides of his mouth, and no one refutes him. Many times, his inconsistencies are in the same sentence. I saw the leadup to this segment and only watched a brief part of the interview. Nothing Thiessen has to say is worth listenening to after seeing his interview in which LO, quite validly, went off on him. I was becoming indignant watching this man at home! They cannot get away with rewriting history in the manner in which they are attempting. Whether it is Perino, Matalin, Cheney or whomever. I can completely understand why they might wish to so do, their actions were shameful. Why doesn't anyone have Cressey or Clarke on to dispute such sniveling BS? They knew EXACTLY who hit us that day in September. Rice just couldn't be bothered to listen to Clarke until Sept. 12, 2001. Little too late, wouldn't you say Condi? And let's not forget Crawford in August, when Bush told the intelligence community that they had covered their ass.

Not only did this country have to endure such a horrific attack, we were misled every step of the way afterwards. Lie to, laughed at ,damaged as a country in ways we never anticipated. .

Al-Queda accomplished so much more than they could have dreamed. It is past time to take it back and restore this great Country to our former glory.

[Ldyandrea]

02:24 PM on 02/22/2010

Who the heck is this Thiessen guy, and why should anyone care what he thinks?

[jeanwny]

02:55 PM on 02/22/2010

He is a nobody, thus his opinions are worthless, but good ole morning joke will give him a platform

[Bozwellian]

05:49 PM on 02/22/2010

..the 'morning jokesters" are beyond jerks --unable to tune them in for any meaningful time as they drivel and snivel too pompously and thensome !! It's msnbc's righteous right lean-to, appeals to the righties who wail over Keith and Rachel but they have the decency(RM /KO ) to correct errancies/admit when wrong as they do indeed FACT CHECK and provde valid references...None of the Mj crew care to do so and are far to arrogantly a total ill-conceivement !!