Dick Marty, the person in charge of investigating the alleged claims of ‘torture’ camps in Europe, has produced an interim report. The gist of the report comes from the “despite having no facts we believe it, so it is true” camp:

A European human rights investigator on Tuesday accused the United States of “unacceptable and appalling” tactics in the fight against terrorism but said he was unable to independently confirm reports of secret prisons run by the CIA in Eastern Europe.

As an indication of how reliable Mr. Marty’s ‘report’ is:

59. The uproar in the United States over telephone taps which President Bush has authorised, apparently without any legal basis whatever, can only reinforce that sentiment. The revelation by The New York Times has further fuelled present controversy.

I guess Mr Marty has a rather lenient definition of ‘uproar’ and what fuels ‘controversy.’ Here is a Gallup press release of today:

The poll, conducted Jan. 20-22, finds half of Americans (51%) believe the Bush administration was wrong in wiretapping terrorist-linked telephone conversations without first obtaining a court order, while 46% say it was right. The latest results show a slight shift in opinion from early January, when more respondents said the Bush administration was right (50%) than wrong (46%),

This poll was released today 25 January. Mr Marty’s interim ‘report’ was released on 22 January. The only polling he had at the time was the earlier information showing slight support for the US administration policy.

Selective quoting and the use of thin facts, that’s what bloggers do, right?