Jeremy Scahill, the National Security Correspondent for The Nation and the best-selling author of the book "Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield," appeared on The Colbert Report last night, and things got a bit chippy — even by Stephen Colbert standards.
As soon as Scahill, who also co-wrote and produced "Dirty Wars" the film, jumped into how U.S. special operations are killing innocent people in undeclared battlefields, Colbert interrupted him to defend the top secret capture/kill campaign.
And the quick back and forth continues through a number of war on terror topics.
Here's one exchange:
Colbert: "[U.S. officials] have information on these people [that we're killing], they just can't tell us."
Scahill: "That's actually not true—"
C: "How do you know that? They're telling us that they have—"
S: "Because Stephen —"
C: "Wait. ... They say that they have it, but they can't tell us because then the enemy will know the means by which they got that information."
S: "So you have an undying faith of the Obama's administration's ability to tell the truth on these issues?"
C: "No no. I believe in our troops, the finest in the world—"
S: "This isn't about the troops—"
C: "It is about our troops."
Eventually Scahill appears to get the best of the host when Colbert says: "Thank you so much for joining me. I've gotta to catch a cab."Brilliant stuff.
Check out the video:
SEE ALSO: Jeremy Scahill Tells Us How He Uncovered America's Massive, Global Dirty Wars