Fox News’ Chris Wallace doesn’t understand the difference between killing the leader of the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization in a military operation and torturing detainees held in U.S. prisons.

“We’ll all stipulate that bin Laden was a monster,” Wallace told National Security Advisor Tom Donilon Sunday. “But why is shooting an unarmed man in the face legal and proper while enhanced interrogation including waterboarding of a detainee under very strict controls and limits, why is that over the line?”

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“Our forces entered that compound and were fired upon,” Donilon explained. “It’s an organization that uses IEDs and suicide vests and boobytraps and all manner of other destructive capabilities.”

“Let me just make my point,” Wallace said. “I’m not asking you why it was okay to shoot Osama bin Laden. I fully understand the threat. I’m not second guessing the SEALs. What I am second guessing is if that is okay, why can’t you do waterboarding or enhanced interrogation of Khalid sheikh Mohammed, who was just as bad an operator as Osama bin Laden?”

“Because, our judgment is that it’s not consistent with our values, not consistent and not necessary in terms of getting the kind of intelligence we need,” Donilon insisted.

“But shooting bin Laden in the head is consistent with our values?” Wallace pressed.

“We are at war with Osama bin Laden,” Donilon said. “It was a military operation, right? It was absolutely appropriate for the SEALs to take the action, and for the forces it to take the action they took in this military operation.”

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Watch this video from Fox’s Fox News Sunday, broadcast May 8, 2011.



