Inspired by the Scripps Spelling Bee

OSS: Spell Sophism.

Reader: What is the definition, please?

OSS: From Your Dictionary:

soph·ism (säf′iz′əm); noun

a clever and plausible but fallacious argument or form of reasoning, whether or not intended to deceive; fallacy

Reader: What is this post’s origin? (emphasis mine)

Then-Vice President Dick Cheney, defending the invasion of Iraq, asserted in 2004 that detainees interrogated at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp had revealed that Iraq had trained Al Qaeda operatives in chemical and biological warfare…

…an assertion that wasn't true.

Cheney's 2004 comments (or sophism) to the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News were largely overlooked at the time. However, they appear to substantiate recent reports that interrogators at Guantanamo and other prison camps were ordered to find evidence of alleged cooperation between Al Qaeda and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein…

Reader: Can you use the word in a sentence? (again emphasis mine)

OSS:

An internal Justice Department inquiry has concluded that Bush administration lawyers committed serious lapses of judgment (or sophism) in writing secret memorandums authorizing brutal interrogations but that they should not be prosecuted, according to government officials briefed on its findings.

Reader: Can you use the word in a video?

Reader: Sophism. S-O-P-H-I-S-M. Sophism.

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• This is change that I cannot believe in.
• Perhaps waterboarding should not be the focus here.
• Finding a "smoking gun" linking Iraq and al Qaeda became the main purpose of the interrogation program authorized by the Bush administration, a former State Department official told CNN.
• A top-secret 2004 CIA inspector general's investigation found no conclusive proof that information gained from aggressive interrogations helped thwart any "specific imminent attacks.”