YABL used to be one of our favorite acronyms here. “Yet Another Bush Lie!” our headlines would proclaim again and again until, really, it became redundant. “Bush Opens Mouth” we might as well have said. But this particular topic seemed to call for a YABL revival as it is particularly blatant.

For graphic starters, take a look at this lovely Map of Routes of CIA Torture Transports. A larger version can be found here at Le Monde, and even non-Francophiles will have no trouble understanding the breakdown of which flights were by the big C-130 and which by the little Gulfstream. It’s nice to have various vehicles handy for different uses, don’t you think?

But the particular lie in question comes from this story which only a couple of papers appear to have picked up. Those who watched the recent PBS/Bill Moyers story about Pressure on the Press will understand why.

The announcement that Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi was transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility from CIA custody raises worrying questions about how long he has been detained by the CIA, where he was held, what kind of treatment he endured, and whether other prisoners still remain in CIA detention. The CIA has previously detained numerous detainees for months and even years. [snip]

Now here comes the lie:

On September 6, 2006, President George W. Bush publicly revealed the existence of the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation program. Although he stated that, as of that moment, there were no prisoners in CIA custody, he did not promise that the program was closing permanently.

Horseshit. He knew it wasn’t closed even as he was speaking. But to continue…

It is believed that more than one al-Qaeda suspect uses the alias of Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi (or Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi), complicating the job of verifying the date of the present detainee’s arrest. A person with that name was reportedly arrested in January 2002; another person with that name is currently on the FBI’s “Rewards for Justice” list. The person on the FBI’s list, for whom there is a $1 million reward, matches the current detainee in certain particulars (both were born in Mosul, Iraq, and both were members of the Iraqi military).

US officials have told journalists that al-Hadi was arrested in late 2006, meaning that al-Hadi has been in secret CIA custody for at least five months.

Yeah, it’s a little convoluted. But look it over again: can you see any possible way that, no matter which of these persons is the “Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi” being flown around the skyways of Secret Prison Planet, he was quite certainly in CIA custody last September 6th when Bush was claiming that

as of that moment, there were no prisoners in CIA custody,

Unless you’d like to convince yourself that by sheerest coincidence al-Hadi was captured right about smack on Sept. 7—which doesn’t match other parts of the timeline—it doesn’t work out. Nope. I didn’t think so either.

Your president is a liar, sir or madame! I know this will come as a great shock to you. Especially you, sir or madame of the press. Perhaps you should do what you normally do and call the White House demanding an explanation, then print whatever they tell you.

You, sir or madame of the press, may then go back to sleep, or out to graze in the meadow of Cocktail Weenies as suits you.