Leftist 'PolitiFact' Smashes Julian Assange's 'Permission-to-Engage' Allegations ... Plus, Commies Pissed Colbert DID REAL JOURNALISM!!

The left-wing PolitFact "The Truth-O-Meter" hammers WikiLeaks Editor Julian Assange's claim that "permission to engage was given before the word RPG was ever used":

When Assange points out in the context of justifying the title "Collateral Murder" that the word "RPG" was not used until after the permission to engage was given, he leaves the impression that the soldiers were given the okay to open fire on a group of unarmed men, or men believed to be unarmed. But the video and accompanying audio make clear that the soldiers in the helicopter said they spotted "weapons" among those in the group -- later identified by an army investigator as an AK-47 and an RPG -- and that they mistook two cameras with telephoto lenses as weapons as well. Assange said he does not accept that his comment makes that implication, that introductory text in the video clearly states, "Although some of the men appear to have been armed, the behavior of nearly everyone was relaxed."

Who can say whether those in the Apache meant RPG when the cross-hairs turned to two of the other men in the group -- not journalists -- and they said "he's got a weapon, too." Photographs suggest that it probably was a man with an RPG, and another with an AK-47 rifle. Still, the soldiers in the Apache reported, "Five to six individuals with AK-47s." That's what the permission to engage appears to have been based upon. RPG's were not specifically referred to by that point, but other "weapons" were. And so while Assange's statement is technically accurate, we think it leaves out critical context. And we rule it Half True.

"Half True?"

Not a ringing endorsement, eh, considering how many MSM-types have swallowed the WikiLeaks slanders hook, line, and sinker.

Plus, radical jerkwad Freddie DeBoer gets pissed that Stephen Colbert had the temerity to "break out of character":

It's a funny world we live in. Colbert has an opinion on whether or not what is revealed in that video is murder. He's entitled to it. Strange to see him step out of character; this, I take it, was a bridge too far, a crime too great to ignore: calling soldiers who fired round after round onto people attempting to load the wounded into a van and get them medical attention "murderers," well, that's past irony and shtick. That requires open and unequivocal condemnation. It's funny-- I consulted older videos of Colbert, online. He has spoken to members of Congress who voted for the war in Iraq several times. He has interview many who were involved in the apparatus of enacting the Iraq war, or who lent their considerable influence to the war effort. He has interview, that is to say, the people who created the material conditions where the victims of this attack were placed in harms way, where the soldiers involved were placed in danger of losing both their lives and their moral integrity. That's war, I'm told; you shouldn't wage it without being willing to risk atrocity.

Freddie's a tool. Funny timing too. Just as Colbert's interview put the final nail in the WikiLeaks coffin, communist bloggers like DeBoer start attacking those formerly thought as in the tank.

Funny, but typical.

VIDEO CREDIT: The WikiLeaks Deception, c/o Jawa Report.