Olbermann Ups Hannity Waterboarding Ante

Keith Olbermann is offering big money if Sean Hannity actually follows through on his waterboarding-for-charity offer.

The MSNBC host - who tries to never miss a chance to blast his conservative competitors over at FOX News - said Thursday he would pay $1,000 to charity for every second Hannity is waterboarded. Hannity has said he would do it if the money goes to American troops' families. Shame on the "gassbag" Hannity for trying to make light of such a tortuous topic, Olbermann said. He asks: "What kind of person would trivialize such an abuse of power? ...and [turn such a dark page of American history into a stunt?"

"They're not taking this seriously and they are talking out of their backsides. What a breakthrough it would be if, by having reality literally forced upon him, a buffoon like Hannity were to realize the deadly seriousness of this," Olbermann said. "The searing truth: that the moment of torture automatically makes the presumed bad-guy recipient the victim, and makes the torturer into the evildoer."

Michael Wolff over at Vanity Fair - a magazine while, though entertaining, is a pretty dependable source of vitriol when it comes to the Bush administration - said perhaps Hannity should be waterboarded 183 times. That's the number of times Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded in a single month. A reminder of who KSM is: He's the Usama bin Laden top dog and uncle of 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Youself. KSM orchestrated the deaths of 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, directed someone to travel to the U.S. for a second wave of attacks, helped decapitate Daniel Pearl, and helped plan a slew of other terror attacks. He wasn't just suspected of having a hand in these things; he made clear he was proud of his role in them.

It's disturbing listening to the the cable-news talking heads and politicians who all of a sudden are protesting against the use of techniques like letting a caterpillar crawl around with someone we think may be organizing another plot against the U.S. Not much in the recently released torture memos was news, the info has leaked out throughout the years. Maybe we should have showed the terror suspects we thought were most dangerous some music videos of a scantily-clad Britney Spears instead. The point is, to only protest it when it's most politically convenient should be an outrage to anyone, no matter what side of the aisle you're on. I by no means am advocating waterboarding, but did they really not know it was going on? Oh, right. It was probably far more politically popular to get tough on the bad guys if it meant protecting the country then than it is now.

Watch Olbermann's challenge below:

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