Limbaugh repeated NewsMax.com's false claim that McCain "admitted that torture worked on him"

On the December 6 and 8 broadcasts of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) had "admitted that torture worked on him" during his five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. By making this claim, Limbaugh clearly intended to undermine McCain's vocal opposition to the Bush administration's policies regarding the treatment of suspected terrorists. But this assertion, which originated in a November 29 article on the conservative news website NewsMax.com, is not supported by McCain's version of events. While McCain has acknowledged that he gave his captors some information beyond his name, rank, and serial number, he has also repeatedly said that he divulged "no useful information," and he has described in detail the considerable amount of false information that he instead provided.

In response to widespread allegations of abusive interrogation tactics employed by U.S. forces, McCain recently proposed an amendment to clarify what techniques are permissible. The measure, which the Senate passed by a vote of 90-9, would limit all Department of Defense (DOD) interrogations to techniques listed in the Army Field Manual and prohibit "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" against any "individual in the custody or under the physical control of the [U.S.] government." While the White House has strongly opposed any such restrictions, McCain has defended his measure by arguing that the use of torture tarnishes the U.S. image and asserting that such techniques "produce bad intelligence" anyway.

On November 29, NewsMax published an article headlined "John McCain: Torture Worked on Me," which claimed that McCain's experiences as a victim of torture as he has described them contradict his oft-repeated assertion that torture fails to produce actionable intelligence:

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