By Bill O'Reilly

 

Tuesday night on "The Factor," we told you the truth: that coerced interrogation, most likely waterboarding, gave the CIA the first clue that led to Usama bin Laden's death. That is the truth. Yet many on the left in America will not acknowledge it.

 

Case in point, our pal Alan Colmes, who simply will not admit that coerced interrogation protects Americans. On Tuesday, Colmes pointed to former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who Colmes said denied coerced interrogation gave the CIA valuable intelligence:

 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

 

ALAN COLMES, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: You don't believe the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld? You don't believe him?

 

BILL O'REILLY: I don't.

 

COLMES: Why not?

 

O'REILLY: Because I -- I haven't -- I have not questioned him. If Rumsfeld wants to come on tomorrow night and sit there, I will question him. And then when he says something, I will decide whether to believe it or not. I'm not going to take a second rate -- secondary source on Rumsfeld.

COLMES: Secondary source? Why would he be a secondary source?

O'REILLY: Because he didn't answer my direct question.

 

COLMES: So only if he talks to you is he a secondary source.

 

O'REILLY: He didn't talk to you either. You are taking it from a secondary source.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

 

And that's exactly what happened. As it turns out, Colmes was wrong. It is extremely frustrating to watch pundits and politicians put ideology above the safety of the American people, and that's what's happening.

 

CIA chief Leon Panetta, an honest guy, admitted that coerced interrogation gave the U.S. government vital information:

 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE COURIC, ANCHOR, "CBS EVENING NEWS": Some valuable information did, in fact, come from enhanced interrogation techniques.

 

LEON PANETTA, CIA DIRECTOR: Obviously there was -- there was some valuable information that was derived through those kinds of interrogations, but I guess the question that everybody will always debate is whether or not those approaches had to be used in order to get the same information. And that, frankly, is an open question.

 

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